Nine Archdiocesan Men to be Ordained to Priesthood: Fr. Houser to Celebrate Mass of Thanksgiving in the Extraordinary Form

New priests are one very tangible sign of the spiritual health of a diocese. The Review chronicles today the very good news of nine new priests in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. The nine deacons to be ordained priests are as follows: Matthew Barnard, Patrick Driscoll, Brian Hecktor, Michael Houser, Eric Kunz, Edward Nemeth, Kevin Schroeder, James Theby, and Noah Waldman.

These men deserve our prayers for their priestly vocations.

In especially great news, Father Michael Houser will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on May 25, 2008 at 10 am at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, which is administered by the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. Deacon Houser has often assisted in Solemn High Mass and other liturgies at the Oratory.

Under the leadership of Archbishop Burke, seminarians in Saint Louis are receiving the liturgical and theological training necessary to celebrate the Extraordinary Form. It is such a positive sign to see the first wave of ordinands making practical use of this training; it bodes very well for the future liturgical health of the Archdiocese.

Congratulations to these men. It would be great to see St. Francis de Sales packed on May 25 to show visible support for the leadership of Archbishop Burke.

Visions of Hell

A story in The Independent about the devastation wrought by the earthquake in China bears the headline: A Vision of Hell. The picture above is from that story, and the headline seems fair enough.

But hell is a big place, and there are more views of it to behold. It just depends on your perspective. Here are some other views:

SLU's Baccalaureate Mass: Forty-Eight Student Eucharistic Ministers!

How "extraordinary".

Forty-eight students handling the Body and Blood of Christ.  Surely this is excessive, even by today's standards.  Right?

Not Exactly Newsworthy

The California Supreme Court has overturned a voter-approved ban on homosexual "marriage". Four people thus overrule millions of voters.  Why?  Because they know better than the rabble.  The most newsworthy part of this story is that it is no longer newsworthy.

Unlike marriage, California will not require that persons seeking marriages licenses be residents of California.  Now the flood gates will open. 

There is an initiative that opponents are seeking to put on the ballot that would define marriage as only between one man and one woman.  Good luck.  I sincerely believe it is only a matter of time that some Court rules that a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional.

There is no reason that any state official has to acquiesce to this judicial tyranny,  but don't get your hopes up for any heroes.  Schwartzenegger has already ceded the field.

Schlafly Honor Anguish Typical for Tolerance Crowd

So, get this-- the Chancellor of Washington University sent an email to students and faculty apologizing for the anguish caused by awarding an honorary degree to Phyllis Schlafly.  Wash U will still award the degree, thankfully, because pulling it would be so incredibly rude and embarrassing as to be out of the power of even a modern University administration.

Mark Wrighton took pains to write that he strongly disagreed with many of Schlafly's views, but that the award would be given because the University's normal procedures to grant the award were followed.  He did promise that he would review the procedures so that the University would never again make the mistake of granting an honorary degree to a woman who actually achieved something.

While Wrighton did not state which of Schlafly's views caused him problems, it is likely to be her commitment to equal rights of men and women under the law, as exemplified most famously in her leading role in opposing the falsely-labelled Equal Rights Amendment.

Schlafly, at her acerbic best, had this to say about the whiners:  "They are a bunch of bitter women.  It was 25 years ago that we buried the Equal Rights Amendment and they are still whining about it."

Without any apparent awareness of the irony, Chancellor Wrighton praised the aggrieved students, faculty, and alumni:  "I thank you for all that you do to make this a community so open, tolerant and inclusive..."

Even Bill McClellan knows better.

If You Have Seven Years to Spend in a British Jail...

You may want to "incite"  someone to "hatred" there based on sexual orientation.  This is the latest in a series, worldwide, of so-called "hate-crimes" laws pushed on societies everywhere by the homosexual rights lobby.

In this particular case, a late vote in the House of Lords caused an amendment to this bill to be retained that partially--partially, mind you-- protects free speech.  The story from Lifesite News:

U.K. Amendment Protecting Freedom of Speech on Homosexuality Removed…Then Kept In

By Hilary White

LONDON, May 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - MPs at Westminster voted on Tuesday night to remove protections for freedom of speech from a "hate crimes" bill, but a vote in the House of Lords retained the wording. In a vote of 338 to 136, the House of Commons agreed with homosexual activists who wanted wording removed that would have allowed Christians and others who objected to homosexual behaviour to preach Christian sexual morality in public without fear of prosecution.

Peers in the House of Lords, however, voted today to retain an amendment that allows religious people to claim freedom of religious expression when charged with "inciting hatred". The House of Commons was forced to let the wording remain in the bill due to time constraints.

The amendment says, "For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred."

Andrew Selous, the Conservative MP for South West Bedfordshire and Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions, warned in the House of Commons that while "we all agree that no one should be abused for their lifestyle," he pointed to several cases where Christians who objected to homosexuality as a lifestyle have been persecuted under current laws.

"An elderly pensioner couple, a bishop of the Church of England, a Roman Catholic archbishop, a leading Muslim figure and a leading author have been investigated by the police, and when that happens people worry about the nature of our society. We must maintain that essential freedom of speech while avoiding the harm and upset that neither she (Labour MP Maria Eagle) nor I wants to see," Selous said.

Nick Herbert the Conservative Shadow Secretary for Justice and MP for Arundel and South Downs argued that the amendment does not weaken the protection for homosexuals.

"We are not here to legislate for matters of taste; we are deciding whether comment should fall within the scope of the criminal law. All the amendment seeks to do is say that for the avoidance of doubt, criticism of sexual conduct and urging people to refrain from certain sexual conduct should not of itself be taken as threatening or intended to stir up hatred. That is a perfectly reasonable safeguard."

The legislation allows up to seven years in prison for a conviction on incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation.

The Reign of Charity, According to St. Francis de Sales

From the Treatise on the Love of God, Book 1, Chapter 6:

Salvation is shown to faith, it is prepared for hope, but it is given only to charity.  Faith points out the way to the land of promise as a pillar of cloud and of fire, that is, light and dark; hope feeds us with its manna of sweetness, but charity actually introduces us into it, as the Ark of alliance, which makes for us the passage of the Jordan, that is, of the judgment, and which shall remain amidst the people in the heavenly land promised to the true Israelites, where neither the pillar of faith serves as guide nor the manna of hope is used as food.

Bad Dissenter Poetry for Your Enjoyment

The ironically-named "Voice from the Desert" site has posted an anti-Archbishop Burke poem from one of its holier-than-the-holier-than-thou crowd called "The Bishop's Folly".  

This poem is, for some reason I can't explain, copyrighted, so here is just a fair-use snippet from this gem:

Where does he come off playing God
Threatening dissenters with his rod?
Capriciously does he excommunicate
Those tired of hearing him bloviate.

I haven't read poetry this bad since the late, great Jack Buck died.

I mean, wow.  I would try to rebut the sentiments the writer expresses about the Archbishop, but the poem is so bad as to be self-negating.

You may want to ask yourself why these people are so full of "hate", and "belittle" those on the other side instead of "engaging in dialogue", but then, hey, who am I to notice?

Enjoy!

Presidential Pastor Problems

The racist and anti-American rants of Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's pastor, have seen much play in the press in the last couple of months. Not as well known are the anti-Catholic rants of John Hagee, a Texas pastor who has endorsed John McCain.

Among the wonderful (but not terribly original) things Hagee has said about the Church are that that it is the great whore, and an apostate Church. Now facing increasing pressure in the wake of Obama disowning his grandmother-- er, I mean, Jeremiah Wright, Hagee has decided to apologize for his anti-Catholic remarks.

You may recall that McCain had fired an aide for playing up the Wright-Obama connection. I thought at the time that it was just because he was a weak candidate. Now it becomes clear he has his own achilles' heel.

Pastor apologizes for anti-Catholic remarks

May 13 01:12 PM US/Eastern

By JIM KUHNHENN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - John Hagee, an influential televangelist who endorsed John McCain, is apologizing to Catholics for referring to the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and calling it "the apostate church."

Hagee's support for McCain has drawn criticism from some Catholic leaders. McCain has said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments.

In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

Donohue, one of Hagee's critics, said, "To me, it's basically over." He planned to meet with Hagee.

Military Allows Religious Exemption to Vaccine Made from Aborted Fetal Cell Lines

From Children of God for Life:

Military Backs Down: Grants Religious Exemption

May 12, 2008

(Washington, DC) In a surprise move by military officials, Officer Joseph J. Healy received official notification on May 9th that they would reverse their previous decision denying him a religious exemption from the Hepatitis-A vaccine. Healy, a Lieutenant Commander in the Coast Guard and a devout Catholic had filed the exemption due to the use of aborted fetal cell lines in the vaccine. Children of God for Life had been assisting Mr. Healy and the attorneys at Alliance Defense Fund for over year in preparation of his right to abstain under Catholic teaching on moral conscience.

"I am not against all vaccines; they are in large part very good and they help protect society from certain preventable diseases", said Cdr. Healy. "In my specific case, I had to weigh my obligation to raise a conscientious objection to the evil way in which the vaccine was derived versus my personal risk and societal risk of Hepatitis A."

In his research, he discovered that an immunized person can still be a carrier of Hepatitis-A if he/she comes in contact with infected fecal matter. Proper hygiene and simple hand washing is actually the best way to prevent the spread of the disease. Healy further noted that, "Eighty-five percent of those exposed to the virus display slight to no symptoms and all develop a permanent immunity to the virus once exposed. Less than 3% of all exposures lead to severe symptoms or death." Since the disease did not pose any sort of significant risk to himself or others around him, Healy weighed his decision heavily on his Catholic faith and pro-life convictions. He simply could not in good conscience use a vaccine that was in any way connected to abortion.

Using the Catholic guidelines on the use of aborted fetal vaccines Healy filed his religious exemption according to standard military procedures but was subsequently denied. Attorney Matt Bowman with Alliance Defense Fund promptly agreed to take his case and filed a lawsuit in Federal Court. Healy v. United States Coast Guard www.telladf.org/UserDocs/HealyComplaint.pdf.

In essence, Coast Guard officials stated that since Catholic teaching did not forbid immunizations, Cdr. Healy was not entitled to a religious exemption. However, unlike most other Christian faiths, the Catholic Church teaching on the duty to follow one's properly formed moral conscience is clearly defined as a tenet of the faith. In addition, the document by the Pontifical Academy for Life issued in June 2005 clearly allows and encourages abstention under proper conditions.

Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director of Children of God for Life has worked for years assisting parents and others in the military who are unlawfully denied religious exemptions. "Until Joe Healy came to us seeking help, no one had ever attempted to bring a lawsuit against the military over this specific issue", she said. "Joe's courage in pursuing his religious rights makes him a hero in my eyes because he would not back down from his deeply held religious convictions, even when faced with the threat of military discipline."

Vinnedge noted that the law governing military religious exemptions is unconstitutional as written under Equal Protection. The law as stated gives preference to only those religions that oppose immunizations as a tenet of their faith. "If the matter had gone to trial, Healy most likely would have prevailed and the law would have been changed", she stated. "I do hope that others in Commander Healy's position are encouraged by his example to stand up for their rights and end this injustice once and for all!"