Abbey-Roads2

Secular press calls the Holy Father the biggest homophobe on the planet…

And yet uber-Catholics post photos like this inviting irreverent and sophomoric comments and captions.  How very, very sad.  Sad, sad, sad - to see unemployed people wasting their vocation and academic achievements on such nonsensical theatrics. 

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I did not want to expose Gerald to this.

(Actually, I’m pretty sure it isn’t my fault - but anyway…)  When he returned from Europe, he was surprised by all the negative email as regards his personal positions on gay people.  As a result, he is thinking of deleting his blog.  NO, no, no Amy Winehouse!  You keep going.

In a couple of previous posts here,  I pointed out the incongruity of Gerald’s “evolved” thought on gay people in order to demonstrate how easily our emotions, our friendships, even our marriages can affect our thinking.  In other words, how the gay agenda has infiltrated Catholic thought.  

We are all so immersed in the world that we easily become affected (infected) by worldly thought - which leads to compromise and permissiveness - even in the best of us.  This in no way implies Gerald is a bad Catholic - all of us can veer off track.  To demonize him is totally wrong.  If he holds views in opposition to Church teaching, then let him be admonished, but certainly not tarred and feathered.  People - we have bishops in office who are genuine heretics - keep a modicum of perspective.

I just can’t stand uber-Catholics dictating as if they are the new magisterium - which Gerald and other bloggers appeared to have done  many times - so when they derail, I may mention it here. 

Gerald is thinking of quitting the blog, so go tell him not to be such a puss.

Again, I doubt my posts had much to do with this controversy, RCblog  pretty much swept sweeps week with his rather intense expose (treatise) on the evils of CIC and everything queer.  Don’t ever tell me  ’me thinks she protests too much’, much less ask, ‘what’s with all the gay stuff?’ ever again.

So anyway - just because you disagree with a blogger, don’t demand their execution.  You realize blogs are simply the author’s (contributor’s ) opinion, right?  I mean, I never heard a Pope say, “Save this or that -  save the world” - yet some one with no real job or assignment repeats a similar mantra, and people think it is Church teaching.  Another guy tells you the Lord is telling him to do this or that on such and such day - fine - whatever - remember, a lot of these people do not have real jobs, they have nothing else to do!  (Just like me!  LOL!)  So remember what I always say - a blog is a blog is a blog - and Gertrude Stein was a dyke.

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Through their Health Plans.

One of the most important benefits in the life of Americans is their health plan - they can’t live without it.  (Although many people do manage to live without one, those who can’t afford health care…   They don’t do well mind you, but they manage.)  I know of a few Catholic bloggers who praise the American health care industry up one-side and down the other. 

One Catholic blogger in particular frequently disparaged those who were in favor of a universal health care system, as well as the poor people who sought health care but had no income; his advice - get a job wth health-care benefits!  Then he and his wife moved to another city and he complained about how expensive COBRA is. I wonder what he thinks now that he may be supporting abortions through their health insurance premiums?

Here is the story on the problem:

The chances are good that your health insurance plan covers elective abortions since 46 percent of all health insurance plans in the United States do so. A leading researcher urges pro-life advocates to investigate their plans to find out whether they are unknowingly supporting abortion.

During the Reagan administration, Dr. Robert Moffitt was the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The money, of course, comes from the premiums that all members of the health plan and/or their employers pay on a monthly basis — including pro-life advocates.“Forty-six percent of workers today in employer-based health insurance finance abortion,” he said, according to a OneNewsNow report. “I think this is critical.” - LifeNews

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So this is my question. Would pro-life employers drop employee health-care coverage if they, along with pro-life advocates were not able to persuade Insurance companies to stop funding abortions?  Would a Catholic family opt out and stop their healthcare coverage because the insurance company covered abortions?Remember we live in a nation wherein our tax dollars are used to support organizations such as Planned Parenthood.  There are also many voters who claim to be Catholic who vote for pro-choice poiliticians.

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The whole world is watching. 

If you read blogs you know the liturgy police are out in full force critiquing every little detail of the papal liturgy…  All the experts are on top of it.

Usually, only the uninvited criticize the parties they can’t attend, while the invited are just happy to be there and be near the guest of honor.

When I say I’m so sick of this pope bull shit - I really mean the rude people insulting the guest of honor by their constant complaining and nit picking.  Is everything in the Church a performance to be critiqued?  Can’t people watch, listen, participate - even worship first, and then discuss the faux pas later?  At least let the guest return home before the murmuring begins.  (Foreign press excepted - they are watching from afar.) 

The following comment from Vox Nova makes the point better than I can:

 Morning’s Minion Says:
April 18, 2008 at 10:13 am

It’s amazing. I came back from the Mass on such a high. The feeling in the stadium was one of pure joy, the woship of the universal Church (in all its divesity) in the presence of the Holy Father. Now, some of the music was not to my taste, but so what? I was just one of 50,000. I know most people I talked to really liked it. And then I come home, and see the blogs. The usual suspects start their sniping. Honestly, they remind me of bitter old geezers who infiltrate neighborhood associations to promote their selfish agendas, and whose only contribution is negative– to complain and moan. It’s the bitterness that gets me, the lack of charity. How ironic that the pope preached a homily against the divisions in the US church, and this is what the blogosphere focuses on. - Vox Nova

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 UPDATED - MAYOR’S OFFICE RESPONSE IN COMMENTS SECTION.  AND PLEASE READ MY LATEST POST, A CONVERSATION WITH DICK COPELAND HERE.

Mayor Rybak and the Minneapolis City Council want to oust the “Mother Teresa” of the Midwest.

The story hit the news wires last week; the City of Minneapolis is citing Mary Jo Copeland’s Caring and Sharing Hands  organization, which feeds and houses countless of Minneapolis’ burgeoning poor population, for what the city describes as the facility’s lack of a security plan. 

This grassroots organization began many years ago in the heart of Downtown Minneapolis, operating out of a little store front.  Back then the city wanted her out because they didn’t want visitors to the new Target Center to see the poor and homeless lined up to receive food, clothing, shelter, and love,  from the north-suburban Minneapolis housewife - who, together with her husband, sacrificed their personal lives, and spent their own money to care for the poor - one on one.  At the time, it seemed Murderapolis had little concern for the fact our tawdry city had the national reputation of more murders per capita than NYC - oh, and that murder rate is growing once again BTW.

I wonder who pads the politcian’s back pockets in these matters?

It is all about sports arenas and big salaries and the like - but only for a few.  The city claims to be working on a security plan for the outreach center.  That said, what I believe they are really working on is quite simply a plan to get rid of Sharing and Caring Hands again - get the Catholic lady away from the sports stadium.  What an eyesore, huh?  To have a center for poor people across from a prosperous, commercial ball park; a scandal the affluent suburbanites coming to town might see.  Today I received the following email from a friend who spoke on the phone with the Mayor’s representative:

The city is maintaining that because of the lack of a security plan, she is out of compliance with her business license.  They maintain that it has nothing to do with the location near the new Twins ballpark.  I find that last item hard to believe.  The location has been controversial since day one because of its nearness to downtown and particularly because of its nearness to the incinerator.

I noted that probably every business in Minneapolis is probably out of compliance with one or more items required by their business license.  Erica agreed with that.

She was concerned about mothers with small children being exposed to drug deals.  I would imagine that those mothers with small children are exposed to a lot more than that.”  - email.

“All of the sudden the city’s concerned we’re not doing this right.” - Mary Jo’s husband, Dick commenting on how all the problems came to light last year:  “He said that city pressure stepped up in spring 2007, just before ballpark construction began.” - Source.

The city contends concern that mothers and small children are being exposed to drug deals at the center?  That’s a farce.  Downtown Minneapolis crawls with drug traffickers, while most of the first tier neighborhoods around downtown are just as infested - if not more so.  South and north Minneapolis are drug and crime infested neighborhoods - yet the city is focusing upon an emergency care facility which happens to be across from the new baseball stadium - which few wanted in the first place.  It is a travesty.

Mary Jo Copeland’s work has even been recognized by the President of the United States, as well as the Vatican.  I urge all of my readers -  everywhere - to protest this action by the greedy elite who govern the City of Minneapolis.   Ray from Stella Borealis published the contacts in the following post I reprinted below for your convenience:  

Sharing & Caring Hands needs your support.

The City of Minneapolis has threatened to remove Mary Jo Copeland’s restaurant license and in turn her ability to serve meals to thousands of the poor and hungry. This move has been raised because of alleged security concerns, and comes on the heels of the new baseball park being built across the street from the facility.

Those who would suffer from this are the poor, the disabled, the elderly, families with children, and people suffering from mental illness who come for a warm meal.

There is a City Council meeting on April 25th and we need thousands of people to call the Mayor’s office and tell lhim you support Mary Jo’s work and you oppose any move to remove Mary Jo’s restaurant license. Please call today or before April 25th.

Contacts:

Contact Mayor R.T. Rybak’s (”R” is for Raymond, I just learned) policy aide, Erica Prosser at 612-673-2133 or email her at erica.prosser@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

A march is being coordinated by the community to protest this move. Tentative time for the march is Thursday, April 17, at 12:30 p.m. Call 612-338-4640 to confirm the time.

[Photo:  Mary Jo (center) at her facility.  The facility is modern, state of the art, thanks to private and corporate donations.  The campus surrounding the contemporary buildings of her ministry are clean and well maintained by volunteers.  It is by no means an eyesore to the city.] 

Links:

Minneapolis Star and Tribune story:  “Homers vs. Homeless”

WCCO news story.

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“Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies…”

One reason I usually refrain from silly posts on this blog is because I hope what is written here will have some credibility.  On my other blog, Abbey 1, I often post ridiculous and humorous things, along with real news items.  If I engage in jocuse lying, I label the post humor or something else to indicate it is not factual.  I never deliberately try to deceive the reader.  Lately I have been posting photos from spurious apparitions, and doing satirical posts on the same, in order to bring attention to the openess of even the devout as regards absurd lies and deceptions masquerading as heavenly messages.  In the Gospel, speaking of the last days, our Lord warns, “Even the elect will be led astray if that were possible.”

“Teach your children.”  

This week we have seen how Hillary Clinton  has been exposed in one her lies, this one regarding her visit to Bosnia  with her daughter.  I suppose she lied in order to make herself appear more macho, more capable of being the Commander in Chief.  She described the visit as extremely dangerous, landing amidst sniper fire and so on.  CBS blew the story out of the water with footage from the visit, proving Hillary and Chelsea were lying.  Hillary dismissed what she said by explaining that she misspoke, and Chelsea backed her up on that.  (Proving to me that Bill and Hillary taught Chelsea to lie like they do.)

“If there was a universal law that it was generally OK to tell lies then life would rapidly become very difficult as everyone would feel free to lie or tell the truth as they chose, it would be impossible to take any statement seriously without corroboration, and society would collapse.” - bbc.com.uk 

A week or so ago, I did a post about liars on the internet, implying that I knew of some bloggers who lie.  I wasn’t referring to anyone in my sidebar, rather other blogs I happen upon when I surf the net.  I particularly had in mind a couple of dissident Catholic blogs where the writers pretend to be faithful Catholics, although they are really schismatics and heretics.  They do not love the truth - in fact, they invent their own truth in opposition to the Church.  (They know who they are.)

“Stop lying to one another.”

I’m not here to single anyone out, I just want to bring attention to the fact that we are being lied to on a daily basis by media, big business, government, politicians, people pretending to be holy- the list goes on and on.  We know that, but can’t we do something about it?  Can’t we start saying, “She didn’t misspeak, she lied!”  “He isn’t telling the truth, he’s lying!”  “The president wasn’t misinformed, he was lied to.”  Call a spade a spade and stop lying to one another. 

(Photo:  Scene from “The Talented Mr. Ripley”) 

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Those filthy monks.

At the company where I once worked, my vice-president happened to be Greek as well as a devout and active member of the Greek Orthodox Church.  At lunch one day we were talking about Greece and I asked enthusiastically if he had ever been to Mt. Athos.  He said, “Heavens no!” and went on to describe the monks he’d seen from there.  He described them as filthy, foul smelling parasites.  He said they were always greasy and untidy.  His wife agreed and said they should stay on the mountain and not come into the city.

Though I was surprised, I considered how complimentary their descriptions might be to the likes of a John of the Cross, or Francis of Assisi.  St. Francis would probably have included such an attitude in his description of ‘perfect joy’.

It also ties in well with the day’s Gospel, when the people of the synagogue took such offense at Jesus, “they rose up, drove him out of the town… and led him to the brow of the hill, to hurl him down headlong.” - Luke 4.  Some of Jesus’ contemporaries also thought he was out of his mind.

Yet we can often become quite offended and defensive whenever we meet with the least opposition, contradiction, or criticism.

“Jesus walked in peace through the midst of them.” - Luke 4.

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