Friday, December 14, 2012

Reflections on Connecticut

Some have asked for my thoughts on the tragedies of today, and so I share them for what they are worth.

It seems like a line was crossed today that, in our country at least, has never been crossed to date.  Columbine was horrendous and was a paradigm shift for the nation, but given our collective experiences as teenagers growing up, and given the fact that most everyone still carries scars from teenage hazing and bullying in some form or another, I think most people at least could fathom the source of the hatred, the evil, and the revenge that we saw in Columbine.  From Stephen King's "Carrie" to Ralphie in "A Christmas Story", we've grown up knowing that bullying does real harm and pushes people to the breaking point.

But a classroom of little children...it doesn't register on any level, nor should it.

So now the carousel of blame starts spinning - people pointing at things external to fix..."better gun laws", "better mental health care", "better health insurance"...give me a break!  I could care less, one way or the other, on gun control, but anyone who thinks that these types of measures would have prevented today is really hoping to avoid the issue that really matters.

The dignity of the person.

In our culture, the dignity of the human person has been spat upon, mocked, and destroyed.  There is no "dignity of the human person" to speak of anymore.  Anytime someone stands up to speak about "the dignity of the human person" they are shouted down in the public square and mocked for using words from an archaic culture that we have, so we're told, moved beyond and surpassed.

A human person today only has dignity if others will it to be so - a child grasping for breath on the abortionist's table is granted dignity solely based on the wishes of the mother.  The abortionist, and our President, like the emperors in the Colosseum of Rome, wait for the thumb up or down of the mother to decide whether the child lives or dies.

Embryos sit in freezers across the country, parents have their reproductive systems mangled in order to have pleasure without the burden of children, wars are now fought, like video games, through the lenses of drones, we tell third world countries that "children are the problem" and so if you want any of our food to eat, you are going to have to stop having children...

Today, in Connecticut, a big fat mirror was held up to our nation, and a monster from the depths of Hell illustrated and showed us exactly what we don't want to see in ourselves...we hate children, we hate life, and human dignity is on life support in this country.

The Joker in "The Dark Knight" utters a seriously frightening, and seriously prophetic line about us:

"Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!"

We're accustomed to the plan of 4,000 abortions a day, it has become part of our character as a nation, and it has faded away into being simply "a part of the plan."

The dignity of the children lost today did not come simply from the fact that their parents happened to want them!!  Their dignity came from the fact that God wanted them, and willed them into existence...that is the sole source of human dignity, and we are meant to marvel at the dignity of such miraculous creation, the miraculous nature of it all only amplified by the fact that all of us have been blessed with a role to play in nurturing and bringing into existence the miracles that are human persons!

We have been anti-life and anti-child and anti-human dignity for a long time in this country, and it is time to stand up and say ENOUGH!!!

We must rise up and demand a return to respect for the dignity of the human person!!!!  We must rise up and say that a child is not a choice, a child does not derive his/her dignity from the choice of another human person, a child does not derive his/her dignity based on whether they are born into poverty or not...we must rise up and say every human person has an unassailable dignity, and that dignity is given to each human person by God, with a capital G,...and if we refuse to do that, if we refuse to acknowledge how utterly evil and depraved this nation is becoming, and if we fail to acknowledge how putrid "the plan" has become that we call every day life in America, and we keep blaming guns and health care insurance, then we should never expect a return to sanity.

Please hit your knees for the families and the loved ones left behind in Connecticut and say a lot of prayers for our country.  Today, a new line was crossed; what remains to be seen is whether we will wake up because of it, or if we will continue to bury our heads in the sand and act like we don't know what is going on.

All Holy Innocents, pray for us!

55 comments:

  1. OH, thank you!!! You have spoken my heart!

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  2. The irony of this, is that this offender and many others come from mothers who were not ready for a child. The fact of the matter is that most crimes come from these types of backgrounds. The Catholic Church's view of morality is outdated and contrary to morality. It has an impractical approach to morality, understanding dignity of children but refuses to address the real problem in this particular incidence and then continues to proliferate it with more unwanted pregnancies with children who continue these crimes.

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    1. Ah...so what would have solved this problem is MORE abortion...that mindset will get us back on track to respecting human dignity again

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    2. Some think we need background checks before we buy a gun--something that "potentially" harms life. What if we get background checks before people have sex--to determine if they are worthy of BRINGING life... Personally I don't want the government taking those freedoms from sensible people. Problem is there are fewer and fewer sensible people! "We have failed to teach our children..." The village is teaching them, and the village is wrong.

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    3. Dear Coward, I mean, Anonymous:

      Not that it matters, but how do you know that this offender's mother was "not ready" for a child? She was married, and this was her second child.

      Catherine Alexander

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    4. Leave it to Father John to be the first to politicize the single most horrific act of violence in my lifetime..... shameful

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    5. The deliberate slaughter of innocent children in the womb is not primarily a political issue, it's a moral issue. No one sitting in Auschwitz would have called gassing Jews a political issue.

      And even if we grant that, "the first to politicize"? Hardly. The Usual Suspects were throwing out political solutions before the crime scene was cleaned up.

      Finally, playing gotcha with Fr. Hollowell is no substitute for consulting with a professional therapist.

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    6. Anonymous: you're forgetting that our culture has turned sex into an act of recreational pleasure. It no longer has anything to do with bringing children into the world. It's why gays are getting the right to marry nationwide. Again, another symptom of our depraved society. It's time to pray, repent and return to the Lord.

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  3. Amen, Father. Thank you for all the work you do for Our Blessed Lord and His Church. Pax.

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  4. Twenty-two children were stabbed today in China in a similar incident. I'm thinking you are right, Father. We do not treat human life with any dignity and we are paying for it as a society. We do not know love.

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  5. Devil 1 vs God -20+
    All you brainy people out there that don't think there is a Devil and that he isn't thrilled at what the people of this country have become .... knock yourselves out. Killing Children used to be a horrible thought...ever think that the killing of female babies in China was terrible? Yet, now it is fine to kill any kid in the USA born or unborn? God save us...we have become a people of convenience, feel good and sin. When you get closer to the end of your life, will you seek mercy?

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    1. I could not agree more. Well put.

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  6. Why do you talk about killing of the unborn but remain silent on the thousands of Iraqi afghani yemeni and Pakistani children we kill every year with our bombs and guns. Is that not closer to the violence we saw today? Say what you want about terrorist but these are innocent children brutally
    Murdered.

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    1. I don't see anything that indicated that is not a tragedy? In fact as father mentioned "wars are now fought, like video games" thus indicating that warfare has lost its respect for human dignity as well.

      I see the point (from my own perspective) being that as soon as we start disregarding life and human dignity from the very beginning (conception), then its easy to do later on down the road. If abortion is ok, then its not a stretch to say that "innocent casualties of war" are ok, and to the extreme out right murder as long as its for a "just cause" then becomes ok.

      If life is respected and cherished from the beginning, then it will always be. The point is not to determine who's life is more important, or what stage of life is more relevent, or who's life deserves to be protected or more discussed. Its to build a society that respects ALL life as the most precious gift.

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    2. I think your reference to "our bombs" killing all these children, ridiculous. Prove it. I listen to the news all the time but I suppose that you have a direct line. I am tired of you liberals just making claims. Prove it or shut up. The Father is right what our society has lost is the the love for life.

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  7. Dear Father, You have spoken for how many of us feel..you have been able to express it in the way we all need to. Mother Teresa warned us of this..Pope John Paul II warned us of this..many pro-life laity have warned of these things..when we cannot respect a tiny helpless human being...when we constantly over and over year after year tell people this excuse of yours no matter what is just fine...then how can anyone dare ask how???? You are right..it has nothing to do with guns or health insurance or this or that..it has everything to do with if one can't do or have what I]they want..I can end it..I can take revenge...and then..I can end me too..as the killer did, because nope..I don't matter either. No biggie...Lord, help us! Suzanne McConnell

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  8. Really? Really?
    You speak of dignity yet you are using this tragedy to slam the President and to push your own agenda? How disrespectful!

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    1. realy, really, your own agenda.
      Dear really, really this is not just fathers agenda, its all of ours, and were seeing the fruits of it now. Our late Pope, whose country experienced the greatest holocausts of any nation in the 20th century, said 17 years ago that protecting the most innocent, the unborn,is foundational . any society the legalizes killing the unborn loses the ability to distinguish right from wrong. this murder of 20 innocents in connecticut happens 150 times every day in our country, it affects us all. read Hosea, there is no escape for those who go along for the ride.

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    2. This tragedy has nothing to do with abortion. A mentally unstable person committed mass murder. I understand that many passionate pro-life activists develop an extreme case of tunnel vision, however every issue doesn't lead back to abortion. Many of the same activists also have an unhealthy hatred for the President, who by all accounts is a good family man who loves his children - and like most parents feels extreme compassion for the parents a d families of the victims. Having policy disagreements is fine, however calling his motives and character into question over policy during a time of tragedy like this is uncalled for and childish.

      Let the families mourn before attempting to use this to your advantage. Please take a step back and pray for victims and their families - and leave it at that.

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    3. If you actually read the entry, abortion is but one of the symptoms. The disease is the loss of human dignity. Where you say Many of the same activists also have an unhealthy hatred for the President, where exactly do you see this unhealthy hatred here and what evidence do you have to support hatred as the motive? Quite frankly, it sounds like you made up a position and slapped Fr. Hollowell's name on it. Of course when one makes up weak positions for others, it is easy to dismiss "their" points. Since Fr. only mentioned the President once and only tangentially; zeroing in on this seems to indicate were the unhealthiness is.

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    4. Anonymous of dec 17, 12:42.
      I wouldn't classify the President as a good family man, he himself said, he would murder his own grandchild in the womb if one of his young daughters became pregnant, despite that fact that he has the financial means to ensure his daughter could support and love the child or give the child up for adoption.
      Unfortunately this school slaughter has plenty to do with abortion, because "legalized abortion causes society to lose its ability to distinguish right from wrong", which is exactly what happened in this tragedy. (JP2- Gospel of Life)
      You also request us to stop talking until the mourning stops. It will never stop for most of these families, so to delay only plays into the hands of evil. We pray, we mourn, but me must act as Christ's example illustrates in exposing and arguing against evil. Jn 8:42-59.

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    5. I've been around the pro-life movement long enough (my whole life) to know the code words. The "loss of human dignity" means exactly one thing.

      Comments on this post and others on this blog clearly rail against the President.

      Scott, you seem to be quick to suggest others are unhealthy or should contact a mental health professional. Are you volunteering your services? Are you licensed to provide the appropriate care?

      Today two more of the children will be or have been buried. Please pray for them and their families.

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    6. I've been around the pro-life movement long enough (my whole life) to know the code words. The "loss of human dignity" means exactly one thing.

      There is no code. Our position is quite explicit:

      Deliberately killing an innocent human being is wrong.
      Abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.
      Therefore, abortion is wrong.

      Comments on this post and others on this blog clearly rail against the President.

      We rail against his policies and the worldview to which he subscribes. When people take personal shots at him, I usually take them to task for it. There are plenty of legitimate moral and logical objections to what the current POTUS stands for, so to ascribe such to emotions like "hatred" (with no evidence by the way) is cheap rhetoric.

      Scott, you seem to be quick to suggest others are unhealthy or should contact a mental health professional. Are you volunteering your services? Are you licensed to provide the appropriate care?

      We have a few malcontents here that try to play gotcha with Fr. Hollowell, but when one notices the utter lack of logic and substance to those gotchas, then you don't need to be a professional therapist to conclude that they need to find a better outlet for whatever is disturbing their peace.

      Today two more of the children will be or have been buried. Please pray for them and their families.

      Will continue to pray for all of them.

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  9. Anonymous: Well this President happens to delight, for lack of a better word, in the killing of innocent children! You should have seen the fake crying. He doesn't care that 20 children were murdered. He doesn't even care that 4,000 are murdered in the womb daily. How could he care about this? America has voted in the most pro-aborion, pro-homosexual 'marriage' president in the history of this country. That only shows you how morally corrupt America is at the foundations. May God have mercy on us.

    Father: Thank you so much for this post. This is truly a horrible crime. My heart breaks thinking of those poor families who will not have their children this Christmas. America needs to wake up before it's too late. God bless you for defending the truth, Father.

    -Hannah

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  10. Thank you, Father! This is a very hard reality that our country does not want to come to terms with. I see the people who attack you do so anonymously because they lack the courage and conviction to actually engage the real issues. Perhaps, like all of us, they do not want to have to look in the mirror and ask themselves how they have failed to love their neighbor? We all have failed and do so daily in our sin. It is times like these that remind me how depraved we are in our sin and why God had to come save us. It is impossible to do alone. Until we restore the dignity of each human person and take responsibility for our actions these horrific acts will continue. This is not a political issue and it sad that your detractors cannot see past their own ideology. God bless you always, Father! Happy Gaudete Sunday!

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  11. A Prayer for all those who lost their lives:

    May the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of GOd, rest in peace. Amen.

    Our only hope is prayer.

    -Hannah

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  12. Thank you Father. Please keep the souls of the departed in your prayers

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  13. We sow the wind, we reap the whirlwind.
    Mother Teresa said the fruit of abortion is nuclear war. At this rate, we may not make it to the nuclear war stage before we tear each other apart.

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  14. I agree with you on all fronts.

    Tonight the president in his Connecticut vigil speech mentioned how a nation is defined by how it treats its children. When I heard that I had to shake my head. There is nothing worse than the killing of a child. The sad irony is that millions are killed every year and our tax dollars help fund it.

    Americans believe the sad rhetoric that is being spewed on television and in the newspapers but in the end we truly have become a Godless society.

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    1. i didnt hear the presidents speech but that is interesting that the most pro abortion president Ever would say that- about how we as a nation treat our children.
      maybe he meant- how we treat only those children who we believe are 'wanted" .
      we dont - as a nation- treat persons with dignity anymore- that is a fact that few could deny .
      the old are put away ,( or deemed not useful anymorel). the un planned child is a 'mistake".
      we are a nation of easy quick abortion, easy no fault forced divorce _ (we get 'rid" of our spouses once they don't meet our standards anymore, and or we meet some new replacement and then decide we are now 'incompatible" with our spouse of our youth).
      we as a nation trade in people like we trade in cars.
      we discard unwanted babies like trash.
      no wonder the dignity of every person is no longer valued in this society that has no God .
      Even among so called Catholics this is the reality far too often.
      how much longer Lord do we have to suffer like this?
      We are made in his image and all deserving of dignity from the moment of conception until natural death.

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  15. I have to wonder what's worse, a mentally troubled gunman shooting children or a highly educated doctor throwing unborn babies in the trash.

    In the end, both need to end if we are to survive.

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  16. Cardinal Stafford in the Year of Peirsomos, 1968, saw the tragedies facing chidren due to the estrangement of men and women, brought on by contraception:

    "There were signs even then of the disasters facing children, both born and unborn. As a caseworker and priest throughout the 1960's, part of my ministry involved counseling inner-city families and single parents. My first awareness of a parishioner using hard drugs was in 1961. A sixteen-year old had been jailed in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. At the time of my late afternoon visit to him, he was experiencing drug withdrawal unattended and alone in a tiny cell. His screams filled the corridors and adjoining cells. Through the iron bars dividing us, I was horror-stricken watching him in his torment. The abyss he was looking into was unimaginably terrifying. In this drugged youth writhing in agony on the floor next to an open toilet I saw the bitter fruits of the estrangement of men and women. His mother, separated from her husband, lived with her younger children in a sweltering third floor flat on Light St. in old South Baltimore. The father was non-existent for them. The failure of men in their paternal and spousal roles was unfolding before my eyes and ears. Since then more and more American men have refused to accept responsibility for their sexuality."

    Source: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/life-and-family/humanae-vitae/the-year-of-the-peirasms-1968/

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  17. Father - thank you. All very eloquently stated and true. Be that as it may, I'm not sure any of this is what really registered with this mentally ill man - my opinion, from a distance. HOWEVER, what is obvious is the hypocrisy of our President, standing before these families and this community, our country and in fact the whole world. "They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own." What about all the other children who are killed in our nation, in the whole world, every day by what is promoted as a 'fundamental right'?

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    1. I don't think this is all what registered in his mind in the moment, of course, but culture works slowly, over time, either slowly building or slowly eroding the dignity of the human person. And we must readily confess that the last 50 years or so in our country have seen "the dignity of the human person" assaulted by our culture nearly continuously, and, we must admit, highly effectively. I don't think this kid thought any of this as he did what he did. It is why Dostoevsky said "beauty will save the world" and why JPII and Benedict have both requoted Dostoevsky. We either take our culture back or we will perish.

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  18. Thank you Father, well said.

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  19. Fr. John, Why should we be suprised that someone has decided to slaughter children? Americans do it every day in the abortion facilities. Isn't it just catching up to this the evil that we perpertrate in our mother's wombs? Why should we be suprised? We choose to prevent life from occuring by contraception every day and treat the child as an enemy and when the contraceptive fails we abort. So, why are we suprised? As far as gun control: a man in China killed how many in a school with a knife the same day or the day before and that wasn't the first time that happened in China. If they don't use a gun in America they will use knives. As long as we fail to recognize and value and appreciate the dignity of the human person this will continue and with the media fueling the whole thing it will just get worse and they'll start keeping score. Pray for America, the victims, the survivors and the loved ones who have been scarred. We need to turn again. Turn back to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Thank you for your input, Father.

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  20. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Men, women and CHILDREN slain. Priest molesting children and the church hiding those attrocities.

    http://www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm

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    1. This is not an argument. It's not even a good retort.

      Priest molesting children is evil.
      Abortion is evil.

      The Church teaches both. That some can't live up to the standard doesn't indict the standard at all.

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  21. Wow this all seems crazy. Any one read freakanomics? Crime rates went down 30 years after abortion was made legal. It seems focusing on helping people out of poverty and with mental health issues would make a larger difference. Also getting away from the violence in the news, video games, and media at large might be helpful. And stopping wars of choice which kill many more children in other countries. I'm guessing ending abortion is no more likely to stop another massacre than "bringing God back into our schools." It seems we should be examining our society, just don't think you have the right answer.

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    1. Crime rates went down 30 years after abortion was made legal.

      That is a bit like saying that rape cases went down after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Even if we grant the highly dubious proposition that there is a causal link between the legalization of abortion and the crime rate, we can't do evil that good may come of it.

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    2. "we can't do evil that good may come of it"

      Which is why ALL war is wrong. You can't kill evil with evil.

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    3. While I imagine we would both agree that just about every modern war you can name did not meet just war criteria, the fact of the matter is that there is just war criteria. As the Catechism puts it:

      2308 All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.

      However, "as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed."

      And we see confirmation of this in the New Testament when soldiers ask John the Baptist what they should do and he tells them to avoid extortion and be content with their wage. If war was intrinsically evil, then the only legitimate counsel he could have given them was either resign or desert. Also, Our Lord Himself uses the example of general calculating if he has enough men to overtake the enemy. Now, one may quibble that He was being hypothetical, but Our Lord wouldn't lie even in such a context.

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    4. I'll admit that I struggle with this, but I do believe that God is still revealing things to us through time, and I still find it very possible that ALL war could be considered evil. While I realize it was part of God's plan for Jesus to die on the cross, it still seems to me that there is a message here. Jesus "turned the other cheek" to the point of him being crucified. If nobody was willing to fight in a war there would be no soldiers to fight anyones battles. I also believe it would be okay to disagree with the catechism for LESS violence. After all, Dorothy Day is being unanimously pushed to sainthood by our bishops, yet she was 100% pacifist.

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    5. Church teaching does allow for pacifism conditionally:

      2306 Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.

      However, it does not, and will never mandate it. While the Church often finds new language to express old teachings, it can never be a case where acts that are intrinsically good or at least morally acceptable will become intrinsically evil. Just as things that are intrinsically evil can never become good.

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    6. Are you saying slavery is NOT intrinsically evil. Because slavery was once considered morally acceptable by the Church.

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  22. The only thing I wanted to add was your comment about not caring about gun control:
    After disarming the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin murdered 20+ MILLION people.
    After disarming the Chinese, Mao Tse Tung murdered 40+ MILLION people.
    After disarming Germany, Hitler murdered 14+ MILLION people.
    Obama and supporters wants to disarm the American people.
    The gun control issue isn't just about removing our right to defend ourselves against criminals. The 2nd amendment was written to guarantee our right to defend ourselves against a tyrannical government that would take away all other rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. If we let this happen, then we are doomed to repeat history.

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  23. This whole article makes me sick. So does a lot of the responses.

    You crazy religious people need to go find some other country to terrorize. Don't you have some missionary work to do or something?!?!

    Get over it.....this is not a Christian nation....never was and never will be.

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    1. You don't have to be a Christian to know that deliberately killing the innocent is always wrong. See http://www.godlessprolifers.org/home.html

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  24. Amen Father! "Courage" is what we need...and if I may be so bold. Courage from the pulpit more so than elsewhere. The Bishops Jenky, Ricken & Paprocki are the exception rather than the rule when it comes to "courage" within the clergy. It is a "Spiritual War" that has America on her knees, but we see capitulation more than anything else from Church leaders like Cardinal Dolan...God Bless you for this great read!

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  25. Challenge: At Mass, if a child starts crying or talking or fussing or singing when he should be silent, etc., DON'T turn and stare. Don't grumble. Don't mutter "That's what the nursery is for" nor "He's old enough to know better" or "What's wrong with parents these days?" or "Why don't they leave?" or "Why can't they act like THAT family?" If you're right next to the family, turn and smile. After Mass is over, thank the parents for bringing the kids to Mass. If they start to apologize for the child's behavior, say, "Jesus admonished his disciples for complaining about the noises and disruptions of the children in His presence. Who am I to complain?" Thank them again. Next time you see them, give them a prayer card for the child(ren) and let them know you are praying for them. If you see someone else being uncharitable to them, then gently correct. The kingdom of God belongs to children, so if we want entrance, we better show that we love them and respect their dignity.

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  26. Fr. Hollowell,

    If you don't mind, I'd like to ask a question as it's an interesting one. Is it possible that the Sandy Hook shooter is in Heaven as well now? I realize that he took a LOT of innocent lives, but if you look at the bigger picture here, it would appear as though this young man was mentally ill. Does mental illness exclude one's ability to enter Heaven? In my line of work(I'm a police chief in a smaller town), I have seen people(and kids as well) with severe mental illnesses. Some of them commit crimes as their reality isn't our reality. Just wondering about this and if you can answer this, that would be great! Thank you for your time Fr. Hollowell!

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    1. One of the many benefits about being Catholic is that we don't ever presume to say whether anyone is in Heaven or Hell, except of course the saints, but other than that, we can just pray for people until we know for sure

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    2. and of course the day we'll know for sure is when we're there ourselves.

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