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TUESDAY March 14, 2000 vol. 11, no. 52 SECTION ONESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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In today's editorial, we remember the "Day of Pardon" this past Sunday and join the Holy Father in expressing sorrow for our own sins and sins of the past. We also take issue with the modern-day scribes and pharisees who mistakenly put the blame on the Church instead of the children of the Church. They cry out for blood when in truth God's mercy and understanding are the real prerequisite. We ask when will they ever learn that accusing through association and inferrence are just as damaging to the soul as the Crusades, Inquisition or Holocaust were to the body. For today's editorial Jesus had to contend with the scribes, too! , click on CATHOLIC PewPOINT
Soon after his Sunday Angelus the Holy Father joined his papal staff for the Holy See's annual Lenten Retreat so he isn't presently aware of the inferences and snipes aimed at him by the media, but we saw it only too clearly. While watching the CBS news Sunday night there was the Holy Father embracing the blood-stained legs of the life-size Jesus on the crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica. Accompanying this video was the audio "but" where the announcer proceeded to mention various Jewish factions who had to criticize, as well as a woman's group and even a snide mention that the Pope said nothing about the gays. Again, please, give us a break! Instead of accepting this solemn ceremony within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a penitential service, the media painted it as if it were a political speech. What really ate our craw was the next sidebar tagged on to that story which accused the Vatican of stashing away millions of dollars, pounds, lire and what have you that, according to the report, rightfully belonged to Jews. The story inferred that the Church was stealing money and then showed some sinister shots of the Vatican that the Church had no comment and were in a state of denial. Guilty by inference. It happens all the time in the media and so the American public was left even more confused by the tie-in between the apology and the Enquirer-type scandal brewing in Rome. Let's say what it really is: more sensationalized muck the media's trying to brew up. It all sounds more like sour mash. Many news reports also inferred that the Pope's apology exonerated all others and placed the blame squarely on the Church. Again, please, give us a break!
It's interesting to note how few have reciprocated the apology. You can probably count them on one hand. Sorry, but are you just as tired and frustrated with all this "holocaust blame-game" being thrust on the Church? In that same CBS report, they once again brought up the holocaust and Pope Pius XII and associated his name with graphic, stark pictures of victims of the Holocaust. The viewer automatically associates audio and video and subliminally good Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes a Nazi war criminal. Oh, the media are such excellent pupils of the university of satan! And in that very same story even poor Pope Pius IX was raked over the coals and his status as potential blessed challenged because he dared to take in a Jewish youth off the streets and convert him. Please, please, enough already! Why should we as a Church apologize for seeking to convert others to the one, true Faith? Didn't Jesus command us to do so?
Our Lord also told us to turn the other cheek and as Catholics we've been doing a lot of that lately. If Holy Mother Church and her members aren't being blamed for the Holocaust, we're being accused of intolerance because we won't accept the sinful lifestyle of homosexuality. Notice how clever the father of lies is? Notice how he has managed to make the abnormal normal, and hammer home, through the help of the prince of darkness' disciples - the media scribes, that good, decent values are "wierd" or "phony?" It is just further proof of Christ's words as well as reinforced in His Blessed Mother Mary's warnings from Rue de Bac and La Salette on, about the loss of virtue and the growing immorality that is engulfing mankind. Today lies are accepted as the norm, even under oath. Our own president doesn't value honest ethics. We are being taught by the media, the courts and schools that responsibility is something we pass off on others; never should we blame ourselves - for society is to blame for our own actions. With this in place no wonder so many wallow in the self-pity vortex that endeavors to swallow others up with them for indeed, misery loves company. And so does satan!
It's time the media display some honesty and, rather than criticizing the Pope with the hollow "he didn't go far enough," help educate the public as to what this "general confession" on behalf of the children of the Church is and the intentions of the Vatican in this act of public "self-flogging." The Holy See never "covered anything up;" it hasn't "hemmed and hawed;" and it hasn't pointed the finger at others unlike those who accuse the Church. Holy Mother Church readily admits her flaws but please don't place the blame of the world on her. That ignominy goes to her greatest enemy - satan and his legions who seek to bring down Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Holy Father, aided by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, Prefect for the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, President for the Central Committe for the Jubilee of the Holy Year 2000, Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Francis Arinze, President for the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, along with Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, Prefect for the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples and Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, President for the Pontifical Counil for Justice and Peace all took turns begging God for forgiveness for sins committed against our fellow man over the centuries. No the Church didn't go into specifics and shouldn't have despite the objections of groups who fall in that claptrap of "he didn't go far enough" or "it was a long time coming, but..."
What the Church of Rome intended was a general "general confession" - if you will - for the sins and flaws of members of the Church universally. It was not an apology by the Church herself for she is the Mystical Body of Christ and God cannot err. Too many media members cannot distinguish that fact and immediately assume the Church herself made mistakes. Of course they want to convey that conception because, as we said earlier, misery loves company. And if they can convince themselves and others that the Church founded by Jesus has sinned then they can surmise that there is nothing special about the Roman Catholic Church nor Our Lord's words in Matthew 16: 17-19. Thus it would give total equal status to the first church on the right in Brawley, California as well as the New Age temple on the hill, the Wiccan assembly in the next county, the first synod church of the Baptist-Presbyterian-Methodist Episcopalians, not to mention the church of anything goes or the church of rainbow dignity and others ad infinitum.
Sorry, but there is only One Church founded by Jesus Christ, and only one person He bestowed the Keys of the Kingdom on: Simon Peter who the Son of God established as the first Pope. In the long unbroken succession there stands today his successor - a holy giant who is intent on fulfilling all that the Savior preached and this Polish Pontiff, who we like to call "John Paul the Great" in the tradition of Leo I and Gregory I, is willing to humble himself before the proud pharisees and scribes of the world. If our Supreme Pontiff is willing to to do it no matter the cost, shouldn't we also? Yes, we're going to have to put up with the barbs and arrows slung at us as Catholics. But that goes with the territory. And, when we really think about it, the problems with today's media are really nothing new. After all, Jesus had to contend with the scribes, too!
Today Michael Vincent Boyer, a well-respected Catholic insider expert on what's happening in the entertainment industry, warns the reader of First Lady Hillary Clinton's hidden agenda in giving lipservice to cleaning up Hollywood. He shows why this is just another facade to cover her modus operandi in further advancing her own agenda at the expense of family values and morals. For his column, Hillary's mantra: "Do as I say, not as I do...or else!" , see HOW HOLY WOULD HELP HOLLYWOOD
The following Tuesday, December 21, 1999 CNN reported that Hillary Clinton proposed a uniform rating system for feature films, television, and video games, saying, "Parents need clear guidance and not alphabet soup." Vice-President Hillary Clinton concluded that she will press for ratings changes if she is elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.
Coincidence? We certainly don't think so. The week before, as director of the IMC, I was a guest on over 30 radio stations nationwide along with a national radio ad campaign advocating change in the rating system. Hillary Clinton is following in the footsteps of her highly deceptive husband who routinely "scolded" the entertainment industry to clean up its act and would then appear at Hollywood fund-raisers within weeks of his pronouncements. Observers say that Hillary Clinton's statement about movie ratings will follow the three part scenario the Clintons have used repeatedly to manipulate and deceive the public:
This is how the Clintons have both operated for more than 25 years of political life. Two recent biographies of Hillary Clinton that were released in late 1999 portray the "First Lady" in terms more appropriate to "The First Liar." She is considered the ring-leader in the mass firings of civil servants in the White House travel office in order to turn the work over to her longtime friend and movie producer Harry Thomason. Insiders say the First Lady went so far as to smear the reputations of the employees using the FBI to "investigate"misdeeds that were later unproven. She originally denied the charge, but testimony at government hearings proved otherwise. (Thomason is credited with rushing to Washington to instruct Bill Clinton to lie to the public using the famous phrase, "I did not have sex with that woman.")
In the biographies, Hillary Clinton is portrayed as the mastermind behind smearing the reputations of any woman who claimed they were abused by her reckless husband. She is also singled out for lying about her part in the fraudulent land deals surrounding the Whitewater development and the legal work she performed, claiming her assistant at the Rose Law Firm did much of the work. When investigators asked to see the billing records, they suddenly vanished, only to appear many months later laying conspicuously on a White House table. Investigators found her fingerprints to be covering most of the documents related to the swindling of investors.
Her personal penchant for lying aside, Hillary Clinton's bizarre personal behavior does not lend well to pleas for reforming the entertainment industry. A former FBI White House chief of security clearance, Gary Aldrich, wrote that Mrs. Clinton's behavior was having a demoralizing effect on the White House staff. One staffer told Aldrich that they were instructed not to make eye contact with the "First Lady" if they were unfortunate enough to pass her in the Executive Office Building corridors. And, Hillary Clinton even insisted initially on occupying the office traditionally reserved for the vice president. In a rare incident of self-assurance, Al Gore stood his ground.
It was Hillary Clinton who lashed out at the "religious right" and blamed them for accusing her husband of inappropriate behavior with other women, most specifically Monica Lewinsky. She flatly refused that he had sexual relations with her and called it all "lies by the religious right who are filled with hate." Even after proof was established and slick Willy finally came forward and fessed up, she was still in a state of denial in public. But comedians have roasted her for what ol' wavering Bill must had to contend with privately for, to quote an old proverb: "There is no wrath like the wrath of a woman scorned."
Never mind that she has been doing most of the scorning. This scorning, as I mentioned above, also includes scorning the movie industry for producing such trash that harm "the children." But secretly her fingers are crossed as she winks at those movers and shakers in Hollywood for she is very much in cahoots with them, hoping to latch on to an executive position in Hollywood after her political career is over much in the same manner as her husband once he becomes ex-president in January 2001. Many expect he will be offered a "cush career position" with Dreamworks by his good friend Steven Spielberg. When it comes to weighing values vs. dollars, do you think Clinton would ever opt for the former? Not a chance! His track record asserts this.
But this piece is about his better half and, as Gary Aldrich also points out, Hillary Clinton was the first wife of apresident to insist on removing the star from the top of the White House Christmas tree. It was replaced with a metal sphere punctuated by a lightning bolt; a defiant symbol showing disrespect for the Star of David. This is the same woman who is touting her "sympathy with Jews" while honoring Ramadan and dissing Catholics and Christian values for the same year she removed the star from the tree, Mrs. Clinton invited artists to create and send original ornaments for the tree. Aldrich reported that many of the ornaments were molded phallic symbols along with carved depictions of couples engaged in sex, which Mrs. Clinton insisted be hung on the tree.
This is a person who bleats "it's for the children" on television and in her saccharine book "It takes a village" and other platforms, while exhibiting a behavior and creed that cries out as hypocrisy. Is this the person Americans want to push for "guidance" and "changes" in entertainment responsibility? We don't think so.
Today we continue with our new series in the search to uncover the wonderful treasures of the Church contained in the great Deposit of Faith. Today we present the first part of the catechesis on the death knell for so many: Mortal Sin as explained in My Catholic Faith for this wipes out all sanctifying grace and takes away, while we have mortal sin on our soul, any chance of Heavenly bliss for it is a oneway ticket to hell when a soul turns their back willingly on God. For part two in the 130th installment, see APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
First, the thought, desire, word, action, or omission must be seriously wrong. The matter must be grave, something very important. A slight act of vanity or impatience is not serious matter, but murder is. Things seriously evil are known to be such from Sacred Scripture, Tradition, the teachings of the Church, or from their nature.
Second, the sinner must be mindful of the serious wrong. He must have full knowledge and reflection or attention, and know that what he does is grievous. The person must know the malice and evil of what he is doing. A man who steals a precious diamong ring in the belief that it is glass has not full knowledge. A man who throws a lighted match thoughtlessly aside may throw it into a gasoline tank and cause an explosiion, but he has not full attention. "For I formerly was a blashpemer, a persecutor and a bitter adversary; but I obtained the mercy of God because I acted ignorantly, I unbelief" (1 Timothy 1:13).
Third, the sinner must fully consent to it. He must do it of his own free will, saying delibertly, "I will do this." When one realizing what he is doing still freely does it, he gives the matter deliberate consent. Therefore infants and idiots cannot commit mortal sin; they cannot fully realize what they do. Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God. "But they that commit sin and iniquity are enemies to their own soul" (Tobias 12:10).
It is a rebellion against and contempt of God, the blackest ingratitude towards Him. Our Heavenly Father gave us everything we have, and in return we offend Him. We desecrate His temple. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). By mortal sin a vile and insignificant creature offends and insults the infinite Creator.
It is crucifying Christ again, "since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and make him a mockery" (Hebrews 6:6). We can never fully realize the malice of mortal sin. We can get a small idea of it by remembering that God sent His own beloved Son to suffer untold agonies, to save us from its consequences.
Mortal sin must be a most appalling thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one mortal sin. Even considering only its temporal penalties mortal sin is great folly. Upon it follows moral disquiet; the sinner loses the serenity and cheerfulness of the just soul. "The wicked are like the raging sea, that cannot rest" (Isaiah 57:20). Sickness and want are often consequences of sin, as well as loss of a good reputation.
Tomorrow: Venial Sin part one
Convert us, O God our Savior: and that this fast of Lent may profit us, instruct our minds with its Heavenly discipline. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Today's and tomorrow's liturgy are both Lenten Weekdays For the readings, liturgies, and meditations, see DAILY LITURGY.
"In this manner therefore shall you pray: 'Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'"
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".
"To stay complacently where we are in our spiritual life is to be as a tree that might congratulate itself that is higher than the shrubs, or to be like a caterpillar that should stay exultant with its spots and stripes whilst the glorious life of the butterfly is untasted."
