Pope arrives in the UK

Pope Benedict arrived in the UK today and on his way in the airplane, he made a pronouncement about the sexual abuse scandal.

He said, "These revelations were for me a shock and a great sadness. It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible," he told reporters aboard his plane to Scotland. "How a man who has done this and said this can fall into this perversion is difficult to understand."

He went on to add: "It is also a great sadness that the authorities of the church were not sufficiently vigilant and insufficiently quick and decisive in taking the necessary measures."

From my perspective, the pope has been personally hurt by the abuse scandals. He is a very holy and humble man and when he heard about these things, he was very sad for the victims.

Obviously though his comments were not enough for certain groups. SNAP, the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests, called the pontiff's remarks "disingenuous" and said he didn't go far enough.

I doubt the pope would ever be able to do enough to appease certain groups. I think the pope has done everything possible to ensure the safety of children and punish wrongdoers.

He first arrived in Edinburgh to meet with the Queen. At around 12ET today, the pope will celebrate Mass at Bellahouston Park, in Glasgow, Scotland.

How will the pope be received in the UK?

A lot of commentators have made the point that Pope Benedict XVI will not receive the best welcome when he goes to the UK because of all the protesters and the general apathy toward religion and specifically Catholicism in the country. But I think they are making some incorrect assumptions.

First of all, the pope has visited places which would be much more hostile toward him, such as:

Turkey from November 28 to December 1, 2006
This was one of the pope's first visits to a foreign country as pontiff. Less than 1% of the population is Christian and the country is described as Muslim by the government. The man who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II advised the pope not to visit.

Cameroon from March 17 to March 23, 2009
The pope visited this country just a year after it experienced its worst violence in 15 years.

Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories from May 8 to May 15, 2009
Obviously there is a great deal of religious violence between Muslims and Jews in these areas. Christians have also been the untold victims of these battles. Yet, despite the risk, the pope visited this area.


On top of this, the media is generally reporting from a so-called "balanced" point of view where they find it necessary to interview both those in favour of the pope's visit and those against it. However, they tend to focus on the opposed because it makes for better news.

I've seen it happen before though. The media will report how there will be protests and apathy, etc. but then when the pope actually arrives, these reports are proven wrong once again as millions of people flock to hear the Bishop of Rome.

Itinerary of Pope's Trip to the United Kingdom

The Pope will be visiting the UK starting tomorrow. Here is a brief itinerary for his visit:

Thu. September 16
Arrival in Scotland at 5:30 AM ET / 2:30 AM PT
Visit with Her Majesty The Queen at 6 AM ET /3 AM PT
Mass at Bellahouston Park at 12 PM ET /9 AM ET

Fri. September 17
St. Mary's University at 5:00 AM ET /2 AM PT
Meeting with Youth at 6:30 AM ET / 3:30 AM PT
Meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury at 10:30 AM ET / 7:30 AM PT
Westminster Hall at 12:00 PM ET / 9 AM PT
Westminster Abbey at 1PM ET / 10 AM PT

Sat. September 18
Mass in Westminster Cathedral at 5:00 AM ET /2 AM PT
St. Peter's Residence at 12:00 PM ET /9 AM PT
Hyde Park at 1:00 PM ET /10 AM PT

Sun. September 19
Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman
Live at 4:30 AM ET / 1:30 AM PT
Departure at 1:00 PM ET /10 AM PT

I will try to keep my readers updated as much as possible on the Holy Father's trip.

Papal Protesters Plan Pitiful Parade

The Holy Father will be visiting UK, starting in Scotland, on Thursday. He'll then make his way down to London. The British media has been doing its darndest to present this trip as a terrible idea, giving a huge platform to any and everyone who has a beef against the papal visitation.

In this article I will attempt to show the reasons for the protests and demonstrate why they are senseless.

1) They want the Church to change its 2000-year-old belief system
This is perhaps the most perplexing goal of the protesters. They want the Vatican to change its stance on many of its doctrines. This is an absurd demand. Would these people demand that Muslims stop recognizing Muhammed as a prophet or protest the fact that Jews wear a yalmulke and perform circumcisions?

The Church has held these beliefs for millenia and they are not going to (and indeed cannot) change them for the will of a small group of people.

They want the church to ordain women, promote contraception, and teach that abortion is alright. The Church cannot "decide" to change her teachings on the sanctity of life anymore than it can decide to stop teaching that God is a trinity. I really find it quite funny when people ask for such things. Would anyone ask the Dalai Lama to stop believing in reincarnation simply because they didn't want to believe in it? It's absolutely absurd.

2) It's too expensive
The pope's trip to the UK will cost British tax payers about £20 million. Many of the protesters, which include secularists, atheists, and those against Church teaching, say this is far too much. However, I heard no such protest in the UK when the King of Saudi Arabia visited, even though his country does not allow freedom of religion and where women have few rights. Nor did I hear protests about money when the President of China, where human rights violations are commonplace, visited.

It seems its ok to spend a lot of money when the leaders of China and Saudi Arabia arrive, but spending money on the Pope is unacceptable.

3) The pope must address the sex abuse scandal!
I get where the protesters are coming from on this one. Here's a church where a lot of young boys were sexually assaulted by priests, and the pope has yet to make a single comment on it or create any laws against it! It's almost as though the pope doesn't care at all. In fact, some would say he's personally responsible. If only he could do "something".

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but the pope HAS done a lot. First of all, he's spoken on the sex abuse scandal dozens of times. He has referred to removing these abusive priests as "removing the filth" from the Church. In all its history, the Church has condemned sexual abuse, especially of minors. In this case, most abuse was of a homosexual nature between a teenage boy and a male priest.

In 1962, the Vatican published guidelines for exposing any priest who committed illegal acts of homosexuality, pedophilia, and zoophilia. Not reporting a priest who did these things could carry possible excommunication.

In 1983, the Vatican specifically mentioned sexual abuse of minors as a serious crime.

After that, year after year, the Vatican continuously denounced sexual assault of minors. The Church encourages people to work with law enforcement when such cases arise.

Sexual abuse sadly exists in all facets of society, most of the time at greater levels than are seen in the Catholic Church. For example, schools have been a veritable breeding ground of sexual assault. Basically any area where adults are caring for minors there will be sexual assault. I even read a report that showed that in New York City, sexual abuse of minors in schools was rampant and that only 1% of perpetrators were reported. The rest were either transferred to another school or kept on.

Despite all of this, there are no protests over teachers or schools. Nor are there protests against scout organizations, swim facilities, etc. It seems some people are very selective about who they will protest when it comes to sexual abuse.

Also, despite the Vatican and local churches doing a great deal, people keep harping on thoroughly unspecific demands, such as "more transparency", or "tougher guidelines", etc. However, no mention is ever made of any actual efforts by the Church. I think the reason for this is protestors are desperate to paint the Church in an entirely negative light, and they believe that by continually demanding seemingly very reasonable requests and then claiming the Church is doing nothing, they hope to gain public support. But why do they not protest any other group that is responsible for sexual abuse?


Those who are opposing the pope's visit typically have a grudge against organized religion or anyone who preaches moral standards. Also, the target of their protests are not Muslim or Jewish groups. Instead, they go after the easy target, the one that will not fight back. The Catholic Church is also the one that speaks the truth and has the most authoritative voice.

I wish I was among the enormous crowds of people welcoming the pontiff in Scotland in a few days from now.

What makes something "offensive"?

What makes something offensive or blasphemous? Is something offensive only if someone takes offense to it? Conversely, is everything that anyone find offensive actually offensive?

These questions are all basically asking the same thing: is blasphemy, offense, and even sacrilege subjective or objective? Most people contend they are subjective, but I disagree.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Blasphemy (Greek blaptein, "to injure", and pheme, "reputation") signifies etymologically gross irreverence towards any person or thing worthy of exalted esteem.

It does not mention a particular individual's feelings toward something. Therefore, a drunken sailor who uses the Lord's name in vain may not have any moral qualms about doing it. This action would nonetheless be considered offensive.

The reason I bring up this issue in the first place is that because most people now view blasphemy or offense as subjective, they reason that we should not limit exposure to such things or try to eliminate them because someone somewhere will be offended anyway.

I have seen things which are offensive and give me an immediate negative reaction. However, a friend might see the same thing and say "Well, I don't see what's so offensive about that. I don't really think it's blasphemous". They may even indicate that they were not disgusted by it, or that they can tolerate viewing such a thing.

They equate their internal reaction to a work of art, sound, or other experience with how offensive or blasphemous it is. In other words, if something does not make them upset or angry, it should be permitted.

This stance however quickly becomes a form of emotionalism, where moral decisions are made based on fleeting feelings. This is a very dangerous road to take. How we behave toward persons and objects must be determined by their inherent value, not by a visceral reaction. No different than a person's value does not depend on the amount of love the other feels for that person.

Determining what actually is offensive can be a challenging task. I have already explained why personal feelings cannot be used exclusively to determine if something is offensive or not. With a well-developed sense of justice, a person can correctly identify offensive or blasphemous things. However, without such a sense, many offensive things would not appear as such.

I believe something can be considered offensive or blasphemous when proper consideration is not given where it is due. Or when someone or something is portrayed in a way contrary to its inherent dignity.

It would be offensive to portray a clean person as filthy, or to portray a tall man as short. Blasphemy is basically something which is offensive that is directed toward God or something holy. Since God is all good, it would be blasphemy to say he is anything other than good. To call God bad would be blasphemous because it is contrary to truth.

How we show honor and respect to someone will vary according to culture and tradition. In the Western World, a hand shake is the norm. In Asian countries, a bow is customary. Although the specific practice to show respect changes, the need to do so does not. For instance, in an absolute sense Jesus merits our honour and praise. Although the way Jesus is honoured may vary by culture, our need to do so does not.

Blasphemy and offensiveness are actions or words which are contrary to the Truth, not emotional reactions.

Does the Vatican have bad PR practices (or none at all)?

I just read an article by Ann Widdecombe of the Guardian. She says the Church does so much good, but unlike other institutions, does not mention the good work it does. It also doesn't go out of its way to make a great defense for any accusations of wrongdoing. She wonders if the church should put more effort into PR. The most shocking thing I found about this article is the comments below. I guess I wasn't really shocked, but as usual, the people just said the Church deserves all the bad press it gets, and more. They basically say the church is guilty for even worse things than the media accuse it of. Of course, any time anyone writes an article which doesn't show the church in a bad light, some people really fly off the handle.

Here is the article:


If only the Catholic church did PR

Divine injunctions forbid the Vatican boasting of its good work, so the only news we get is bad news

Alastair Campbell once famously said that the Blair government did not do God. Equally true, but perhaps less generally recognised, is that the church does not do PR. If only it did then much of the controversy around the papal visit would fade into insignificance. But unfortunately for the modern media, there are some quite specific divine injunctions forbidding it.

The notorious Foreign Office memorandum mocking the visit suggested the pope should open an Aids clinic. "Don't they realise the church runs more Aids clinics across the world than any single nation?" wailed one prominent Catholic when I met him by chance.

"Does it?" I answered.

That simple exchange demonstrates the difference between the church and the secular world. The Vatican does not publish endless reports of the church's work, accompanied by boastful advertising hoardings and party political broadcasts. It doesn't even make a fuss when its missionaries and aid workers die in the cause.

Indeed, when I wanted facts and figures on the church's overseas aid for a debate, I had to search hard. Christ said, "do not your good deeds to be seen before men", so the church dutifully hides them or at least refrains from ostentatiously displaying them. The same applies to its rescuing thousands of Jews during the second world war (many of them hid in the pope's own summer residence).

One of the biggest propaganda coups against the Catholic church in recent years has been to portray it as riddled with paedophiles whose vile activities it has sought to cover up. Apart from the occasional defensive flash when a senior churchman is wrongly accused of inaction, the church has merely apologised and asked for forgiveness.

Well, so it should. One child abused would be one too many; but it is frustrating that the church does so little to put its role in proportion. Meek and mild may be good, but leaving the ordinary members of the flock bleating in bewilderment as the wolves of Fleet Street snarl around them, jaws foaming with allegations, is not so good.

After all the dust had settled in America, 98% of priests were untouched by allegations, let alone convictions. We do not yet know the final figures for Ireland but what we do know is that there is nothing unique to the Catholic church about child abuse. Teachers, care home workers and scout masters are just a few other examples, while the biggest category of abuse is, horrifically, within families. The church of course would never seek to compare its own sins with those of others, so this point is never made.

The same applies to the allegations of cover-ups. In the 1970s the National Council of Civil Liberties, an eminently respectable body staffed by eminently respectable people like Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman, actually allowed affiliation with the Paedophile Information Exchange, so little was the nature of paedophilia understood.

Cases were often dealt with by magistrates and sentences could be light. In the 1980s I was doing Samaritan training and, far from reporting cases, we treated child abuse no less confidentially than any other crime. It was the mid 1990s before we had a sex offenders' register in this country. Why would the Catholic church be expected to know what the rest of the world did not?

However, there is no explanation for the church's feeble response to the allegation that the pope had said ordaining a woman is as bad as abusing a child. Everybody understands the categorisation of offences in America into misdemeanours and felonies. The church does the same with sin and grave sin. Just as the inclusion of burglary and murder in felonies does not imply an equivalence of seriousness, so the inclusion of female ordination and child abuse in grave sin does not imply equivalence. Wakey, wakey.

So, yes, this visit will be controversial and many of the allegations will go unchallenged. For those of us who do both God and PR, that will be as frustrating as it is heartbreaking.

--- END

The original article can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/07/if-only-catholic-church-did-pr

Pilgrimage tomorrow near St. John's

Tomorrow will be the 6th annual Flat Rock Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is a 4.2 km walk to the shrine, where St. Michael's Church is also located. Everyone is welcome to participate. After the walk, pilgrims are invited into the hall for some food, followed by confession and Holy Mass. I will be a marshall, making sure pilgrims peacefully coexist with traffic.

Most years that this event has taken place, it has been quite nice weather-wise. However, this year there is a 60% chance of showers. Hopefully this will not deter "true" pilgrims. If however, some are unable to walk in inclement weather, there will be several vehicles driving the path.

During the walk there will be prayers such as the rosary, and singing of church hymns. People are asked to arrive by 10:30am so that the walk can begin promptly at 11.

For more information on this penitential pilgrimage, please visit the website at
http://www.flatrockpilgrimage.org/

Catholic Church condemning Upcoming Qur'an Burning

The Vatican council on Interreligious dialogue has come out against a plan by a United States pastor to burn copies of the Qur'an on September 11th, nine years after the World Trade Centre attacks.

The Vatican says this action does violence against a religion and is considered a hate crime. Sept. 11 will also coincidentally be just a couple of days after Eid, the day after Ramadan where Muslims break their month-long fast.

Federico Lombardi, the current director of the Holy See Press Office, says:

The terrorist attack of September 11 was surely a horrendous crime and we cannot forget the incredible loss of human life and the suffering that it had caused but the correct way to demonstrate our horror for this crime is surely not the outrage against the sacred book of an immense religious community, the Muslim world, for which we have to demonstrate profound respect.

The Catholic Church respects religious freedom all around the globe. Therefore, the Vatican has always condemned attempts to curtail this freedom. For example, the Church opposed a law banning minaret construction in Switzerland. Also, the archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, has said Muslims have the right to build a mosque and community centre near ground zero.

The Catholic Church recognizes that many many Christians live under persecution by governments and people of certain religious groups. Therefore, in order to advocate for the freedom of Christians, the Church also requests the freedom of all religions.

Happy Belated 100th Birthday Mother Teresa

Yesterday marked Mother Teresa's 100th birthday. She died 13 years ago at the age of 87. She lived a long life despite living in absolute destitution and often going without food and water.

Mother Teresa, who is on her way to becoming Saint Teresa of Calcutta after being beatified by Pope John Paul II, was born in Albania but moved to India to help the poorest people there. Her habit was fashioned after a sari, the traditional clothes worn by Indian women.

For her work of establishing an order of nuns, the Missionairies of Charity, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She was also good friends with John Paul II.

Mother Teresa ought to be remembered for her selfless attitude in life. She gave up a relatively comfortable existence to live with the poorest of God's children. She helped all people, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu alike.

Let's honour Mother Teresa in our own special way.

Judge stops killing of embryos

A United States District Court Judge, Royce C. Lamberth, has banned the use of embryonic stem cells in scientific experiments. This is a good ruling because embryos are people - very young people - but people nonetheless.

In his ruling, he said "The Dickey-Wicker Amendment unambiguously prohibits the use of federal funds for all research in which a human embryo is destroyed. It is not limited to prohibit federal funding of only the 'piece of research' in which an embryo is destroyed. Thus, if ESC [embryonic stem cell] research is research in which an embryo is destroyed, the guidelines, by funding ESC research, violate the Dickey-Wicker Amendment."

The bill was passed in 1995 and signed by Bill Clinton. Obama overturned the law, but the judge said a president cannot overturn a law enacted by Congress.

The case will probably go to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and finally on to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Back in the day when Obama changed the law, he said:



Obama talks about the false choice between sound science and moral values. And he believes in this case, the two don't need to conflict. What moral values is he talking about exactly? What moral system permits the killing of human beings in order to benefit others?

He specifies "in this case". That implies that sometimes sound science can conflict with moral values. What cases would not be problematic for the President, if killing some to benefit others is not?

Plus, I believe "sound science" would be moral science. What else would constitute "sound"? If morality does not play a role in "sound science". Otherwise, Nazi experimentation could potentially be classified under "sound science".

As usual, Obama is using verbal gymnastics in which he attempts to appease both sides of an argument, but ends up producing nonsensical "talking points" which are logically invalid. This, ironically, is what may have allowed him to be president. Another black man was running for president, Alan Keyes. Keyes is a fluent speaker, but he is not as acquainted with politically correct jargon.

One day, he and Obama were being interviewed on the topic of same-sex marriage. They both agreed it was wrong, but their approach was very different. Keyes gave logically consistent moral arguments for why gays should not be allowed to be married, how it is not even possible. However, Obama spent almost the entire time speaking of his concern for gay people and all the struggles they endure and in a very vague way eluded to the fact that he doesn't believe they should have the right to marry.

Unfortunately for Obama, his eloquence this time could not override the fact that his embryonic stem cell legislation was illegal in the first place. Judge Lamberth rightfully barred it.

It is sad that embryos exist outside the mother's womb in the first place. It's even worse that they are killed for experimentation. A sense of compassion for those with various diseases is virtuous. We must do everything we can to help them, but killing other members of the human race to achieve this end is not justifiable. On top of this, embryonic stem cell research has yielded no results. Only adult stem cell research has.

Those who advocate this procedure need to seriously ask themselves why. Is it really for the cures, because it has not achieved any, although adult stem cell research has had much success. Maybe, just maybe, this is their revolt against the morality of some. Perhaps they are rebelling against the moral standards of many simply to rebel.

Hopefully once this goes to the Supreme Court, the justices will rule sagaciously and declare research on embryos to be illegal.

Gay agenda trumps freedom of conscience in England

Anyone who's been looking can clearly see that religious freedom is no longer protected unless you support the most radically "progressive" agenda society has to offer.

This is exactly what is happening in Leeds, England. The Catholic Church is being coerced out of the adoption business by a radical gay agenda.

It's really quite simple. The Catholic Church believes the best place for a child to be raised is in a heterosexual household where there is mother and a father. It is believed this is a natural family, with proper complementarity. A child grows and develops best with both a feminine and masculine influence in their life.

However, "progressives" believe this only one of countless possible environments in which a child can grow up health and happy. They ignore our universal cultural wisdom in favour of a radical redefintion of family life. A child can equally be raised in an environment with
- a loving mother and father
- two women and no father
- three men who often have other male "friends" over and no female influence

Of course, sticking two men together and calling it a "good environment for a child to be raised" is no different than placing a chick to be raised by snakes.

However, for the sake of argument, I will go as far as to assume there is no objective difference between any environment for a child to be raised in.

The Catholic Church in England runs a large adoption agency. They happen to believe children should be raised in a heterosexual environment because it is best for children. Even if you consider this to be some crazy belief, what gives anyone the right to force them out of business. The government is forcing the Catholic Church to either adopt to gay couples against every moral fiber in its being or be shut down. EVEN if the Catholic adoption agency agrees to refer gay couples elsewhere, this will not suffice.

It is clear that freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are mere shams. The communists in Russia were more open about destroying opposition, but the political agenda of many is no less determined. The only difference is that the "modern" way of doing this is hiding behind political correctness and making people believe they have some sort of freedom.

How the government can force a good group of people to adopt kids into an environment they deem dangerous is beyond me. And this is not just a British problem. It has happened in Massachusetts as well.

The question is often asked "How does gay marriage affect your (heterosexual) marriage?" Well, this is just one example. This is how gay marriage affects the lives of countless children. Those opposed to gay adoption are targeted and shut down. The thousands of children that were helped no longer can be. It's a travesty of the highest magnitude.

Don't ever be lulled into believing that gay marriage won't affect society. It has and will continue to.

Relic of the True Cross returned to Boston Church

A fragment of the true cross which was stolen sometime between June 30th and July 1st, was returned to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (appropriately) on August 9th. The relic has been part of the Cathedral for over 200 years.

Earl Frost, who returned the relic said he did not steal it but rather came into possession of it from an anonymous third party. Despite this, police say they are planning on charging him with possession of a stolen item.

The street value of this relic is said to be around $2,300 to $3,800, but of course the church cannot sell this item and considers it priceless, as it is.

Pieces of the true cross, which are said to have been discovered by Constantine's mother, Helena, are particularly valuable as relics. Many fragments exist in the world and are contained in many places. Some non-Catholics claim there are enough fragments from the true cross to build a warship, however recent scholarship shows that the total remaining collection of wood from the true cross would only be enough to build one third of a cross.

It's a really good thing that this first-class relic was returned.

How many Muslims are there?

This is a very brief post. How many Muslims are there? Everyone seems to have a different number. Is this number being inflated sometimes? Maybe it's just notoriously hard to estimate something like this.

Anyway, on Wikipedia, they give a range of 1.2 to 1.57 billion Muslims. This is a difference of 370 million. Not a small difference. It also said that this represented about 25% of the world population of 6.8 billion, but this is patently wrong. Even if we use the high estimate of 1.57 billion, the percentage would be 23%, and if we get the average of those two numbers, the percentage is 20%. I changed the article to reflect this.

But even this upper estimate is not high enough for some people. I am watching Larry King Live and Russell Simmons is on and he claims there are 2 billion Muslims worldwide.

When I searched for "number of muslims" in Google, half of the first page contained links to pages promoting Islam, compared to 2 out of 10 when searching for "number of christians". Just from my own observation, it seems many Muslim websites attempt to report the highest numbers they can.

The estimate of the number of Muslims worldwide varies from 1.2 billion to 2 billion, a huge difference in numbers. Compare this to estimates for the number of Catholics. The official Vatican count on Catholics is 1.147 billion. Not between 1 and 1.5 billion, for example. This may be because the Catholic Church is very organized compared to other religions. Overall, it is estimated that there are 2.1 billion Christians in the World. Statistics show that for the past 100 years, around 33% of the world has been Christian. This estimate is well established and accepted. There is not one estimate for 1.5 billion Christians and another estimate for 2.5 billion.

My question is, why are the estimates for Muslims so variable?

Double standard for Catholics and Muslims

There's been a lot of controversy over the building of a giant mosque next to Ground Zero, but something that constantly comes up is people qualifying terrorism by saying that most "moderate" Muslims are peaceful and condemn violence. They say only a tiny fraction of extremists are responsible for terrorism and that we shouldn't paint all Muslims with the same brush. In fact, many in the media are falling over each other to proclaim that most Muslims wouldn't ever commit a terrorist act and are in fact peace lovers.

This is all fine and dandy. But none of this of this has happened for the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Even though we know only about 1% of priests ever abused anyone and most of these involved post-pubescent males, every Catholic priest, and indeed the Catholic Church itself is painted with the same brush of pedophilia. There have been numerous attempts to implicate high church officials and the pope. People go to very unreasonable lengths to try to convince others that the entire Catholic Church supports sexual abuse of minors.

News agencies are willing to disregard normal journalistic standards by getting their information from plaintiffs' lawyers who are suing the Church. They disregard the obvious bias in favour of defaming the Church.

It's become commonplace for comedians to joke about "pedophile priests" and implicating all churchmen into this immoral behavior. I wonder, would you ever hear a standup routine calling every Muslim a terrorist? And would you hear it from the likes of Jay Leno? Of course not. There's obviously a huge double standard.

Just to give you an idea of the double standard, let's look at some back to back quotes from people concerning Muslims and Catholics:

Jay Leno on Catholic priests and bishops:
"As you've probably heard, the Pope has asked all the Cardinals to return to Rome. You know how they got them all to come back? They told them that there was going to be a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir."

"They say (the Pledge of Allegiance) violates the separation of church and state. How about the separation of church and altar boy? That's what I'm worried about."

Jon Stewart (the Daily Show) on Catholic priests:
"The Cardinals will be staying at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the new hotel at the Vatican, where turn down service means the bell boy isn't interested."

Over the last several nights on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, when speaking on the mosque building controversy, will show clips of anyone opposed to the mosque and mock them or show how they are being ridiculous for even questioning it. He continually makes the point that only a tiny fraction of Muslims are violent.

David Letterman on Catholics and Muslims:
"There's a lot of tension in the world. Over the weekend, Pope Benedict apologized to the Muslims. Altar boys, on the other hand, are still waiting for their apology."

Joy Behar
When speaking on the Catholic Church, Behar said the Church has to do a "complete overhaul", that it should scrap celibacy, allow women priests, etc. She also has said she remembers when she was younger all the priests were drunk all the time. On top of this, she has declared her belief that saints were "crazy".

However, on her show on Headline News, she interrupted a guest who was against the building of the Ground Zero mosque saying, "You have to differentiate between Muslims and extremists". A few seconds later, she again stresses this point by saying they didn't run a Danish cartoon because "Islamic fundamentalists and jihadists are objecting to that, not Muslims." On this 3 vs. 1 show, Behar constantly reminds everyone that there is a huge gulf between extremists and Muslims. Why then doesn't she do the same when talking about the sex abuse scandal in the Church?


I could go on with this list for some time. We see over and over that bias against the Catholic Church is completely acceptable and even encouraged, while at the same time the greatest of care is taken to avoid offending other groups, such as Muslims. We must demand an end to this unfair discrimination.

5 Reasons Pakistan may be ripe for terrorism

Pakistan is suffering a terrible flood with one-fifth of the country underwater. On top of this, there are many problems in that country which could reinvigorate its extremist element. Here are five reasons Pakistan may become quite dangerous.

1. Perceived lack of concern over flooding
Pakistan is receiving relatively little aid from donors in the Western world, especially when compared to Haiti during its time of need. The UN says it has only collected 35% of its required relief fund and that most of this came from the US and UK government. Because of this low level of giving, many Pakistanis will resent the US and the rest of the Western world and believe they do not care.

Another piece of information is that World Vision was able to raise $44 million from private donation in the United States for Haiti, but only $660 thousand for this flood in Pakistan.

2. Taliban providing better assistance.
The Taliban seems better able to provide necessities than the US or the UK in this time of need. They are giving out food, water, and shelter, while the Western world is lagging behind. People there are developing favorable attitudes toward the Taliban which will aid in its recruitment of terrorists.

3. Pre-existing bad reputation of the United States
Only 17% of Pakistanis hold a favorable opinion of the United States, and 59% described the United States as an "enemy". More (18%) of Pakistanis hold a favorable view of Al-Qaeda.

4. It is Ramadan
Because it is the season of Ramadan, Muslims increase religious devotion and practice fasting. This increased fervor may serve to amplify any negative feelings Pakistanis have toward the United States.

5. Mosque proposal in New York
With all the talk of the Mosque being built in the United States and the opposition by 70% of Americans, the Taliban will capitalize on this brouhaha to show the Pakistanis how Americans "really" feel about Islam and further push the line that the United States is in a war against the religion of Muslims.

Conclusion
The United States and other Western countries needs to get into Pakistan and give lots of aid along with plenty of pro-American marketing. For example, they could distribute flyers in Urdu (the official language) telling people what they are doing. They could also explain that the United States is not anti-Muslim. These steps may be necessary to subdue any upsurge in terrorist activity.

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/08/17/17greenwire-western-donations-lag-for-pakistan-flood-victi-56219.html

Mosque near ground zero: from a Catholic viewpoint

As everyone knows by now, there are plans to build a giant mosque and Islamic community centre near Ground Zero, where two hijacked jumbo jets destroyed the twin World Trade Center towers. I want to analyze this issue from a somewhat Catholic perspective.

First of all, this is legal and I believe that's a good thing. Since religious freedom is guaranteed in the United States, there cannot be a ban placed on building a mosque anywhere as long as it's legal to do so. The plans for this building place it in a legal area. As far as I know, there is no legal basis for rejecting this large structure.

I am not arguing from this point of view. Legally, this is acceptable.

What about from a moral point of view? The Catholic Church is usually at the forefront of demanding religious liberty. For example, in Switzerland, the Catholic Church voted against a ban on Muslim minarets. The Church seeks religious freedom for Christians in Muslim places such as Saudi Arabia. It would be logically inconsistent to ask for such things which voting to deny them to Muslims.

The Church believes in religious freedom, unlike other religions like Islam. The Church believes that if everyone is exposed to the Gospel, conversion of hearts will soon follow. The Church does not fear religious freedom because it presents the truth and ultimately the truth prevails. However, many Muslim countries are hostile toward Christianity and some outright ban its practice. Similarly, atheist countries like North Korea and Soviet Russia banned all forms of religion.

So, from the perspective of religious freedom, the Church says Muslims are allowed to build a mosque wherever it is legal and desirous to do so. In a letter, Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan wrote: "What is not acceptable is to prejudge any group, or to let fear and bias trump the towering American (and for us Catholics, the religious) virtues of hospitality, welcome, and religious freedom."

He went on to say: "Yes, it is acceptable to ask questions about security, safety, the background and history of the groups hoping to build and buy," Archbishop Dolan wrote. "What is not acceptable is to prejudge any group, or to let fear and bias trump the towering American (and for us Catholics, the religious) virtues of hospitality, welcome, and religious freedom."

Dolan continued by noting that both the current and former popes advocated the Muslim right to build a mosque in Rome.

Therefore, it is safe to say that from a Catholic point of view, such a construction would not seem "immoral" or wrong. It comes down to "do unto others".

Having said all that, I still question the entire idea from a prudential point of view. Who decided to build a mosque so close to ground zero, at a location which was actually damaged by the attack? This is no small building. It will cost $100 million to build. Where there, why now?

There is widespread opposition to the building of this mosque and cultural centre with around seventy percent of Americans against it. It is obviously being built on a very sensitive area. So even with these considerations, why didn't those building this structure consider a different location?

To me there is poor judgment here and I cannot understand the motivation. Imagine if there was an attack in Northern Ireland where a group of extremist Catholics entered into a protestant area, and detonated fifty bombs simultaneously, killing one thousand people. Then nine years later, with the destroyed area still in ruin, the Catholic Church decides to build a $100 million Church and cultural centre. This would seem very insulting and a form of triumphalism. Even if the extremist group was all excommunicated from the Church and publicly distanced from it, it would still seem insensitive. Almost like raising a flag after a war. And how about if 70% of Northern Irelanders were against such a structure? I think from a purely prudential point of view, such a construction project would be rightfully considered a poor choice.

Muslims and all other religious people should have the right to build a place of worship wherever they want if it is legal. However, everyone also has the right to act logically when making decisions.

Abortion protester refuses to pay taxes

David Little of Atlantic Canada has refused to pay taxes since the year 2000 in protest of the Canadian Government's abortion laws. Finally today, after a long battle with the Canada Revenue Agency, charges against Mr. Little were dropped and they believe he would be unable to pay taxes anyway.

He was fined $3000 in 2007, but did not pay it.

David Little believes it is his moral right to refuse to pay taxes because some of the money he provides pays for abortion.

Apparently the man is living off the hand-outs of others and spends his time between PEI and New Brunswick.

Is there a moral basis for this man's actions? What are the impacts of this?

I have heard many times people who believed it was within their rights to refuse to pay taxes because they fund abortion. In the US, virtually all abortions are paid for privately. This makes a lot of sense since abortion is always optional. In the event that the life of the mother is threatened, civil and moral law would allow the mother's life to be saved, even if the child were to die as an unintended consequence.

Therefore, the government should not pay for an optional procedure which causes the death of at least half of those who enter the abortionist's room (the child).

But can we refuse to pay taxes because of this? When I first read the article, I wondered how he could justify not paying ANY taxes whatsoever. Obviously, not all tax money goes toward abortion. In fact, only a percentage does. By refusing to pay taxes, Mr. Little also refuses to pay for heart surgery, roads, and care for the elderly. But then I thought about it further. If he pays taxes at all, he cannot dictate where the money goes. If he owes $1000, and only pays $900, then he cannot specify that his $900 pay for non-abortion costs. Therefore, even if he pays one cent, it could potentially go to abortion.

But if this man wanted to subtract the percentage of tax dollars that go to abortion, what perecentage would it be?

According to Life Canada, a low estimate for the cost of abortion is around $80 million per year in Canada (estimated around 2001). Total tax expenditure in Canada for 2008-2009 was $238.8 billion. However, in order to compare apples to apples, let's use Canada's 2001 expenditure which was $196.5 billion. Therefore, the government spends about 0.04% of its budget killing children. If a man filed a tax return for $10,000 for the year, he would have to subtract $4.

We are not required morally to refuse to pay taxes for abortion. However, we cannot support it in any direct way. I think it's good that this man is bringing attention to this travesty. More people need to stand up for their values.

Sorry about my long absence

I have not posted any new articles since last Monday. Don't worry, however. I will be posting several articles over the next few days. There should be one shortly. Thanks for continuing to read my blog. I am now up to 20 followers.