Well, not really. The vice of sloth (acedia) is properly applied to the spiritual life.  It is an attitude of sluggish commitment to the pursuit of virtue. (yes, we faithful must continuously strive to be more patient, humble, charitable…)

Yet I confess a certain slothfulness in the secular sense for not keeping this blog current.   My sincere apologies to those of you who have been checking in to see if anything new was EVER going to be posted.

Family duties and a marvelous pilgrimage trip in France are an excuse on– the surface.  But in all candor,  like many of you, I’ve struggled with something constructive to say about the state of our culture.  One cannot ONLY decry the grave conditions–we live amidst such dehumanizing policies (abortion, homosexual unions, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, etc.) and even within Christian populations apathy seems to dominate discourse. The stock market holds more importance than the devolving culture, it seems.

Alas, some of you are tapping me on the shoulder with a “get moving” message. A few days ago Inside Catholic ran an article I wrote a few years ago, Eight Habits of Highly Effective Bishops. New readers arrived here from the link only to find a post from February. Mea Culpa. Pray that I reform my slothful ways!

There are many topics I want to touch upon in the coming weeks.  Just tonight I sent a friend a copy of a YouTube video that i making a strong impact on Evangelicals and Catholics. It is a very graphic look at how Christians are loosing the demographic war.  The information is not new, we have known these figures for years now. But this video is visceral:

watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

What remains unsaid is that we Christians have ignored God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.”   In short, we are reaping what we have sown.  Muslims have been largely immune to the massive population control measures pushed on the world by the United Nations.

Five years ago I gave a talk at a women’s conference and quipped, “Westerners want three TVs, two cars and one child.”  Now we see that  our materialistic values have brought us to the precipice of extinction.

On a mystical plane we must remember that God has honored us with the privilege of co-creating with Him each time  new baby is born. These are the children who will live for eternity. If we refuse to cooperate with God’s plan, deny the reality of the body and its theological import, then we have denied a soul an eternal life with God.

The video ends with “This is a call to action” …but what action?  To evangelize  Muslims? Evangelize them to what? A lukewarm Christianity that no longer acknowledges that God is a Father who commanded us to populate  heaven for eternity?  (”Be fruitful and multiply”).

What do you think about our collective failure on the matter of contraception?

Tags: contraception, Depopulation, Islamic threat.

Update:

The “economic stimulus package”  jinned up by House Democrats includes over $300 million for  sexually transmitted disease prevention and education (p.147).  Publicly Obama asked that Pelosi’s provision for government funded contraceptives be removed from the stimulus plan.  Who is fooled by this slight of hand?    The begged question? IF Madam Pelosi thinks too many babies are a government economic problem ( the reason for her contraceptive push) why not simply let STDs ravish the population–it can cause sterility.

All attempts at ironic humor aside, it is clear the new administration is using the screen of economic malaise as a means to catapult their anti-family, anti-life agenda into immediate action.

January 17, 2009

The attack on families continues at the international level.

Clips from recent news on the fate of the family in the near future…

First, a clarification from  the Vatican spokesman attending the World Meeting of families in Mexico City this week :

MEXICO CITY, January 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family has issued a clarification of remarks by Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, reiterating the Catholic Church’s condemnation of homosexual sexual acts.

The clarification followed Antonelli’s statement to the media, made yesterday during a press conference at the World Meeting of Families in Mexico City, that “the homosexual experience must stay within the confines of a private relation, a relation between friends.”  The quote was picked up by the French Press Agency in its reporting on the meeting.

Seeking to avoid a misunderstanding over the Church’s teaching on homosexual behavior, Subsecretary Carlos Simon Vazquez held a second press conference, stating that “affirming that homosexuality is something private, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family did not intend to justify it.”

“The cardinal simply emphasized that homosexuality does not contribute favorably to the structuring of people and society,” said Vazquez. “The exercise of homosexuality does not reflect the truth about friendship.  Friendship is inherent to the human condition in which there are relations of closeness, support, and cooperation, in a polite and friendly climate.  Friendship should be lived in chastity.”

Full Translation of Statement of Fr. Carlos Simon Vazquez of the Pontifical Council of the Family on the immorality of homosexual behavior.

More here:

http://www.zenit.org/article-24800?l=english

* *

The news is full of president elect Obama’s invitation to the practicing homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson–an invitation praised by evangelist “super star”, Rick Warren.”

This is a fig leaf that Obama is pasting over the angry demands made by liberals– and particularly the homosexual groups– when Obama invited Rick Warren to give the invocation at the Inaugration. The addition of Episcopal bishop Robinson, whose homosexual lifestyle is open and obvious–and the source for the raw  wound in the U.S. Episcopal Communion–is an attempt by the Obama administration to comfort the gay groups.

But the take away message is that the Obama administration will be “gay-family-friendly”.

Meanwhile, China piles new fines onto those couples who violate the one child only policy…

Some years ago British author PD James wrote a novel, Children of Men .

The storyline of the novel is that no one has had a baby in a generation, humanity is dying out. Ravaged streets feature roaming gangs, vast boulevards of uncollected trash (what is the point, life is soon to be extinguished) and wailing grown women carrying around baby dolls.

IF we are tempted to laugh off such a plot line, recall reports in Japan of hot selling items Baby dolls for grown women. Amazing life like dolls that coo and burp. (note: the dolls in the video  are very disturbing for some people)

Japan of course is one of the most rapidly aging nations on earth–after Russia. 

I have a theory–I am surely not the only one who holds it–that the economic crisis is partly due to the destruction of the family. I know it is a stretch, but a brief point to spare you a dissertation on the topic:

When people no longer have children, what does it matter what lies in the future?  If the nation is bankrupt in 40 more years, what do I care if I have no children to live in that future world? If I do not care what happens to the next generation, then I justify “getting all I can get” in my generation.

Pray for families and those who make family policy.

More to come on this topic.

Tags: families unnder attack, population control.

How is it that our bishops are so divided on the matter of Catholic voters who supported Obama and his anti-life policies?

For instance,

“A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told members of his church who supported Barack Obama that they should voluntarily refrain from receiving communion. The Rev. Jay Scott Newman says they should not take part in the sacrament because they backed a strong abortion advocate for president.

Newman said Thursday that Catholic Church policies don’t allow him to refuse to administer communion so he hopes the parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville will decline on their own.

He said his members should refrain from participating until they do penance for backing “the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president.”

Verus,

“Two weeks after he wrote that ‘Sen. Joe Biden presents a seriously erroneous picture of Catholic teaching on abortion,’ Bishop W. Francis Malooly said that he will not ask the vice president-elect to refrain from receiving Holy Communion.”

I have received numerous emails on the matter of the USCCB removing sensitive issues from their agenda. There is so much frustration, particularly from dedicated pro-life Christians who fear thirty years of work sinking into FOCA quicksand.

Here is news–though it seems to many of us to be too long after the fact.

* Cardinal George:

“In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any “interference” in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.

Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. Abortion clinics would be deregulated. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated. FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.  ”

Full text:

Cardinal George Voices Hope for Obama Administration, Points to Possible Obstacles to Our Desired Unity

BALTIMORE—Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), voiced hope for the Obama Administration but pointed to possible obstacles to our desired unity, in a Nov. 12 statement at the end of the annual fall assembly of the USCCB.

“The bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all,” he said.

He said that “the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve,” if the administration’s policies increase abortions.

“Aggressive pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.”

“We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation,” he added. “The common good is not the sum total of individual interests: it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.”

Cardinal George’s remarks follow.

STATEMENT of the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” (Psalm 127, vs. 1)

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all. Because of the Church’s history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad. The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.

The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents. A good state protects the lives of all. Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This was bad law. The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.

In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any “interference” in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.

Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. Abortion clinics would be deregulated. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated. FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.

FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities. It would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.

On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will. They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby. Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men. The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.

The recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families, here and around the world. If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve. Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected. Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.

This statement is written at the request and direction of all the Bishops, who also want to thank all those in politics who work with good will to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us. Those in public life do so, sometimes, at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families; and we are grateful. We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation. The common good is not the sum total of individual desires and interests; it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.

Our prayers accompany President-elect Obama and his family and those who are cooperating with him to assure a smooth transition in government. Many issues demand immediate attention on the part of our elected “watchman.” (Psalm 127) May God bless him and our country.

http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2008/08-174.shtml

See also,

http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?ID=281

George Carlin offered this insight,

“Although practicing/church-going Catholics (who represent ten percent of the electorate) gave McCain 55 percent of their vote, many in the rust belt regions of Pennsylvania and Ohio stayed home because they were disenchanted with the Republicans; angry at Bush; or unhappy with McCain.

On the bright side, exit polls indicate America is still…..READ MORE HERE

More commentary  on bishops here

See commentary on bisops & Obama here

Tags: bishops, election, USCCB.