Great Article on "motu proprio"

"The other week Pope Benedict XVI phoned a few French bishops, and it wasn't to find out what they got for Christmas. According to Britain's Catholic Herald, the pope was doing a bit of old-fashioned arm-twisting in response to these bishops' very public opposition to Benedict's intention to grant Catholics more access to the pre-Vatican II rite of the Mass."
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"The-not-too-subtle message of this revolution was, if the Mass, the thing the Church held most sacred, could be monkeyed with, then it was open season on doctrine, discipline, religious authority, religious vows, church music, education, sexuality, marriage, and life itself. As the Catholic Church sank into chaos, many Catholics jumped ship. A 1958 Gallup poll found that in the United States 75 percent of Catholics went to Mass every Sunday; today the number has dropped to 25 percent. By the way, on any given Sunday in France, the bishops can count on seeing about five percent of the population.

MASS ATTENDANCE WAS NOT the only thing that suffered in the upheavals that followed Vatican II. Today 53 percent of American Catholics believe that one can have an abortion and still be a good Catholic. And 70 percent of American Catholics in the 18-44 age group say they do not believe that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, that it is only a symbol of Jesus. "
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You can read the whole article here.

Pope Benedict, please, give us faithful Bishops

Here are some recent examples of the complete lack of zealotry one would hope to find in a Catholic Bishop or Priest.

The Deacon stands while the Priest and Bishop fall.

Archbishop of Washington DC prefers not to confront those that support the holocaust, indeed, even worse, he welcomes them.

Nobody stands up to John Kerry.

Nobody stands up to Ted Kennedy.

Now, these are just a couple recent examples where big-name politicians are given an apparent dispensation from following, or even endorsing fundamental Church teaching.

This is exactly the sort of scandal that destroys the Church. If the clergy whose job it is to teach the faith, refuse to do so, how can they expect anyone to believe? If you are looking for a reason for the lack of new priests, you can lay plenty of blame at the feet of those who show the country and the world that Christ's church stands for nothing.

Luckily, I have had enough experience with real Priests, and and have read enough to know that real Bishops are out there, to keep my hope alive. I can only pray that the Pope will fix these problems in the American church, sooner than later.

Here is an article that says what I am saying, but better than I did.

Fairly unrelated, but certainly worth reading, here is a story on how the Communists, during the cold war, sought to destroy the Church.

March for Life

On Monday, January 22, I attended the annual March for Life. I had intended to visit the Blogs4Life conference, but due to circumstances beyond my control (our bus was later than we had planned for) I was unable to make the conference. I did however, still make the march. Following is some video from the march.



Here is video I shot before and after the Mass at DAR Constitution Hall. For an NO Mass, that was so large, it actually went fairly well. Cardinal Rigali from Philadelphia presided. I did not video any of the actual Mass, just the music beforehand, and the Cardinal leaving afterward. Note that this was the smaller of two Masses in DC at the same time. The larger one was at the Verizon center (used to be MCI center), where the Washingon Wizards basketball team plays.




Here is video immediately following the event at Constitution Hall as the group from the Mass makes its way to the march.




Here we have video of the more interesting speakers at the march. I skipped alot of the politicians as they are boring and not to be trusted, in general. I did get my congressman, Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland. My favorite speaker is the guy from the AME church in Frederick. The Rabbi is also there every year and always has something incendiary to say.




Here is video of the actual march. Its not a terribly long march, and there were absolutely no counter-protesters on hand.

So, there you have the video. I just wanted to add a comment about the march, both last year and this year... I noticed there are several different types of people that go to these marches. You have the people who are there and celebrate by chanting college fight songs, or cadences, or other types of music. They are usually younger people, and tend to be there with their college or high school, or youth group. I find it unsettling, because I am more the somber person, there to mourn and protest the holocaust. I would almost prefer a silent candle-lit march. I think that would somehow be more appropriate given the gravity of what I, and presumably the other march attendees believe is going on.

One last item to chew on. Thinking back to the Nazi holocaust, pretend for the sake of argument that the Nazis had allowed those who sympathized with their victims to hold a rally and march once a year in Berlin. How would we view the hundreds of thousands of people who one would assume would have turned out to march? How will history view us, assuming we will win one day, and human life will be protected by the law? We march once (some of us more often at smaller events) a year, we "pray" for an end to the holocaust, we donate time and money to oragnizations and groups that work to provide alternatives to abortion, for those women who seek an alternative. Is it enough? Would it have been enough for the Germans to do the same?