Thursday, January 26, 2006

 

Is This Charitable Love?

Pope Benedict's encyclical released yesterday makes for an intersting read. to summarize it simply: Follow Jesus' command to love one another as I have loved you. This command certainly includes charity. But is there a reasonable Christian limit to charity?

For example, is it charitable to erect "shooting-houses" as one group of nuns did in Sydney, Australia so that drug addicts could be assured of using clean needles so as to lessen the risk of contracting AIDS?

I would argue that true charity would be to erect homes that help people kick the habit.

Is it charitable to coddle law breakers and allow them to prey on society rather than reforming the system to prevent them from roaming on our streets even if they come form hardship?

I would argue that true charity would be designed to protect those who follow the laws. However, there are many groups and people who disagree with my position. Perhaps the most noticeable are Catholic Charities and the three Bishops of Arizona. Recently the Bishops of Arizona's 2004 letter to President Bush on illegal immigration (ooops! they call them migrants, has popped up again in the news.

The Bishops, in passing, recognize that there exist "economic inequities and other social factors which (sic) force individuals to leave their homes, at great risk to themselves." It is not clear if the Bishops are blaming Mexico, the United States, or the governments of both countries for these problems.

What is clear in the Bishop's letter is that they have absolutely no regard for those people in the United States who have been victims of crimes of illegal aliens. The Bishops refuse to call these aliens what they are: illegal. The Bishop's choose to redefine the debate by calling the illegal aliens migrants, as if they were legal United States citizens relocating from one state to another.

Additionally, they want the United States government to reward the law breakers with legal status, and they want to make it easier for these law breakers to bring their families into the United States thus causing further problems for our already social service systems including hospitals and schools. Additionally, as pointed out in a 2001 University of Arizona study, the cost of dealing with the illegal aliens who break laws once they get here has hit $125 million per year and is growing.

The Bishop's charity is going to get more people killed, hurt and robbed. it is charity the United States can do without.

Note at 7:58 p.m. Then there is this.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

 

Irritants

Ok, it's time to be extra screedy:

1) While driving at about 15 mph making a U-turn on a cul de sac A woman who was parked illegally and getting in to her large truck glared at me and began flapping her arms like a goose. I backed up to see what she wanted, and she said, "Next time please drive slower because we normally have kids around here."

Slower? Lady, if you are letting your kids play in the street you should be arrested for child endangerment. City streets are not your personal playground.

2) Evo Morales, the new and first indigenous president of Bolivia, popped off and told the United States not to try to dominate the region.

Come on... I guess he prefers to be Hugo Chavez's hand puppet rather than be our friendly ally that will, for the most part, leave him alone. The silly anti Yanqi nonsense might play well with the people of Bolivia, but that only means that he needs to revamp the education system since his populace is uninformed about reality.

Monday, January 23, 2006

 

Render unto?

Catholic Charities of Los Angeles currently has a contract with the City of Glendale to run a day laborer center across the street from Home Depot. The site has seen two protests in the last two months on illegal immigration. As of last week Catholic Charities of Los Angeles now operates a site across from the new Hope Depot in Burbank. Home Depot was forced to build the center, deed it to the City of Burbank, and contribute $100,000 per year to the city to run it (or contract it out).

On the KCET show Life and Times (I think on Thursday last), this new contreversial center was featured. The libleral LaT show stated that day laborers account for 50% to 85% of the laborers. Thus, Catholic Charities of Los Angeles is aiding and abetting law breakers. As pointed out in this blog before, many serious and deadly crimes are committed by illegal aliens.

How charitable is it to promote the breaking of United States law that very may well lead to the deaths of United States citizens?

Catholic Charities of Los Angeles should be ashamed (and its leaders jailed for aiding illegal aliens).

Monday, January 16, 2006

 

Cephas

I went to a different parish for Mass last night as it fit the schedule better since I was coming back in from out of town. The pastor prayed the Mass, and I should note that he was the associate pastor at my parish until July 1 of 2005.

He made an interesting point about Cephas, the rock, and the teaching authority of the Church. Unfortunately, he is a medjugorje nut (and doesn't seem to know that Cephas, a Greek term, can be interpreted to mean rocks whereas the Aramaic "Kipha" is crystal clear about being a singular rock/cornerstone). It seems the authority of the Church only goes so far. He attacked those who claimed that they believe in Jesus but not what the Church teaches or holds. He, however, is quite comfortable picking an choosing where it is convenient for him.

It really is too bad. I am disappointed in him whereas the bicycle Irishmen who took over my former parish is a Mahony hack bent on ignoring Rome where it is more politically proper to do so according to the corporate office on Wilshire. Given last night's pastor's otherwise conservative leanings, I can only assume that he got the pastor's position since Mahony tacitly endorses medjugorje in The Tidings by advertising illicit jaunts there.

It is very unfortunate that we must suffer the priests as well as the bishops in Los Angeles, especially when the former could be so easily fixed by a boss with his head screwed on straight.

Friday, January 06, 2006

 

Suffering the Bishops

As pointed out in the January edition of First Things, "we will during the scriptual readings at every Mass have occasion to remember Flannery O'Connor's sage observation that we frequently must suffer more from the Church than for the Church." If only this suffering could be isolated and associated with the new and poor translation of Biblical texts found in the New American Bible. Many educated and observant Catholics suffer almost every time that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opens its collective mouth. To paraphrase President Reagan, "there they go again."

Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino (acting for the USCCB), has issued a statement in support of the upcoming week of Journey to Justice (Jan. 8 - 14) citing a joint Mexican-U.S. Bishops pastoral letter of a few years ago that begins:

"From its founding to the present, the United States remains a nation of immigrants grounded in the firm belief that newcomers offer energy, hope and cultural diversity."

Sorry, Bishop Barnes, but you could not be more wrong.

The United States was founded by Protestants with a specific Judeo-Christian concept that included the evolutionary and revolutionary English based concepts of democartic government. Immigrants who agreed to shed their old ways and adopt the "American" way were generally welcome over time. Those who clung to the old ways were shunned.

Even the early bishops of the Roman Church in America understood what it was to be American by supporting the Revolution and the Constitution. Just over one hundered years after the founding of the nation, the Knights of Columbus understood that immigrants needed to help one another, but also needed to become "Americanized" in order to be accepted in this country. The blatant anti-Catholicism of people like Senator Blaine and the No-nothings was only overcome by Catholics who "out-Americaned" the Americans. The Knights' Fourth Degree was instituted in 1900 to instill and reinforce patriotism in the hearts and minds of its American members. Many other examples (most not related to the Knights) from the two World Wars including calls for enlistment, public and financial support for the soldiers and the cause, and prayers for the troops and for America's victories from the pulpit show that American Catholics, both lay and clergy, understood what it was to be an American and a Roman Catholic.

Alas, Bishop Barnes and the USCCB seem to either not know American history or are intentionally rewriting it. Those of us who know better are left to suffer from their polices and statements now and, unfortunately, in the future unless they choose to be more honest with themselves and us.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

 

Let the Pranging Begin

Outcoached and outplayed in the first half, the USC Trojans eventually fell to the Texas Longhorns in the Rose Bowl last night 41-38.

Conclusions?

1) Congratulations to Texas!

2) Ol' Pete needs to check his ego. Get the field goal early; manage time outs better; and finally, and most importantly, hire a real offensive cooridinator and stop the Yes-man pseudo play calling by group think nonsense... Hire Norv Turner and get out of his way.

3) Unless Reggie Bush immediately comes to understand that he needs to hit more holes and shake-and-bake less against teams with speed, he should stay another year. He won't stay, but he needs to wake up.

4) If Vince Young comes out early, he is drafted before Leinart.

5) Focus on the defense in recruiting after the dead period is over.

6) Move on. It's over. There are dead miners in West Virginia. Last night really was just a game.

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