Did Paul VI ACTUALLY approve contraceptive use?

Thanks to Fr. Z for doing this legwork.  Click here to read his article.  Spoiler alert - the answer is no, he did not

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2016/02/its-not-an-urban-legend-its-a-lie-paul-vi-did-not-give-permission-to-nuns-to-use-contraceptives/

Planned Parenthood's Catch 22

When the Center for Medical Progress first began releasing their videos showing Planned Parenthood executives salivating over baby organs that would allow them to purchase Lamborghini's and so forth, Planned Parenthood took a stance: Nothing on the videos is illegal, nor is anything shown on the videos even unethical.


Then, as the onslaught of videos continued, and executive after executive continued to be implicated as more and more videos were released, Planned Parenthood changed course by saying the videos were deceptively edited.



Both can't be true at the same time.

Planned Parenthood needs to state clearly whether they believe

a) The videos don't show anything unethical being done or
b) The videos DO show something unethical being done BUT were edited and manipulated to show this


The only way out of this is for Planned Parenthood to say "The videos were deceptively edited and manipulated, but the videos, even after their editing and so forth, still don't show anything unethical or illegal" - but of course they would never say that because people are so outraged at the videos they've seen and the videos DO SHOW illegal activity.

So Planned Parenthood really is in a Catch 22

Did she not actually say this?  Was it manipulated to make it SEEM like she said "Lamboughini" when in fact she didn't?

Perhaps this conversation was worked up by a movie studio?

Courtesy of George Lucas' ILM special effects team?

Not actual baby body parts for sale?  Just clever editing?  More special effects?

America Today

I'm reading on the fall of Rome right now.  Can't help but see the similarities to what is happening in our country today.

HOMILY - US Bishops: Abortion and Euthanasia are the "Preeminent threats" to the Body of Christ

We've hear that we are all one Body in Christ so MANY times, which is good, but we probably lose the REVOLUTIONARY nature of what St. Paul was saying.

Every culture before Christ had, in one way or another, looked at some people as "more human" and other people as "less human" or even "expendable non-humans"

Saint Paul says - "THOSE DAYS ARE OVER"

Additionally, not only does St. Paul say the days of marginalizing the weaker members of the Body of Christ over, he also says those 

"That seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor"

The Church is the immune system of the Body of Christ.  It looks for threats to the Body of Christ, threats that attack the dignity of any single member of the Body of Christ, and the Church points out those threats.

A great example of the "Church as Body of Christ immune system" is this very month that we are in right now.  January is 

1) Poverty Awareness month

2) Mid January - Migrant awareness week

3) This past week, we, for the 43rd year, remembered through prayer and fasting the anniversary of Roe v. Wade

There are a lot of ways the Body of Christ is attacked.  The Church speaks to all of the threats and attacks.

Several years ago, the bishops of the US wrote a letter addressing all these attacks to the dignity of the human person.  They mention:

1) starvation,

2) denial of health care

3) deadly violence of armed conflict and the scandalous arms trade that spawns such conflict. 

4) domestic violence,

5) the spread of drugs,

6) a reckless tampering with the world's ecological balance. 

But the document goes on: "Yet abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others.  They are committed against those who are weakest and most defenseless, those who are genuinely "the poorest of the poor." 

Military people are always assessing – “What are our GREATEST threats…most eminent threats”?

            

A question for us as Catholics - "Who do we listen to on this topic?"  Whose "humanity threat assessment do we utilize?"

EVERYONE believes that SOME of these threats are a problem.  But which one's are MOST EMINENT?  Some people listen to the UN on how to order these threats.  Some people listen to news outlets.  Some listen to political parties, some listen to celebrities, and some listen to Jesus through the Church He founded.

         

This whole assessing of threats and deciding which are most eminent leads some to say two things (which are equally wrong)

1) Some say: “We can’t speak up against abortion and euthanasia because it will water down our speaking up on the other threats against the human person.

2) Some say: “I won’t speak up against anything else except abortion and euthanasia, lest someone think I’m wavering on abortion and Euthanasia"

These are both WRONG!

We can speak up vociferously against abortion and euthanasia AND still care and work very diligently for the poor in our community.  We can speak out against abortion and euthanasia AND protect all that God has created.  

On Friday, we diverted our planned trip to Washington DC for the March for Life and instead went to Indy to avoid "snowmaggedon".  Archbishop Tobin had two beautiful homilies at our vigil and Mass for Life.

He noted the same thing that our US bishops noted several years ago - there are a lot of attacks on the Body of Christ, but he too singled out abortion and euthanasia as the two preeminent threats.  He noted that what is most troubling about them is that they are both often done by people who have been trained to bring healing and health to people.

Archbishop Tobin also talked about what we, as faithful Catholics, ought to be doing about all these issues.

“We do not fight against darkness and the culture of death with violence…but we do not take a vow of silence either, we speak the truth”

Saint Boniface:  Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf.  Let us preach the whole of God's plan to the powerful and the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season.

May the Eucharist strengthen us to preach the WHOLE of God's plan, and not just the parts that suit our politics

"I wish the Church would change its teaching on __________________"

“We do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world.”  -G.K. Chesterton


There is a GIGANTIC difference between saying
"I struggle with the Church's teaching on ____________"

and 

"I've DECIDED the Church IS WRONG on ____________"



And before you say "the Church changed on usury or slavery" please look those issues up yourself and do some studying first.

Cecile Richards argues with Cecile Richards

"Some men you just can't reach"

Thanks to Mike Brummond for sharing this


Quick background - some sins are "reserved to Rome" meaning a priest can not simply absolve those particular sins in the confessional right away.  In cases were these "reserved sins" are confessed, I am to write a letter to Rome (leaving the person's name out of the letter) asking for permission to absolve a particular sin.  Rome then writes a letter back granting me that permission, and then the person comes back to the confessional and I can then absolve that sin for that person.  

Abortion is a sin that isn't reserved all the way to Rome, but it IS reserved to the local bishop, although the bishop CAN just give his priests the ability to forgive the sin of abortion immediately in the confessional.

This is MSNBC's headline today when news broke that the Pope has extended to ALL priests the ability to absolve the sin of abortion directly, WITHOUT having to write to their bishop each time.  

In the Archdiocese of Indianapolis we have always had that ability delegated to us priests, so this announcement doesn't affect us anyways, but there are dioceses where priests did not have the ability to absolve the sin of abortion.

Long story short, the headline should say something like "Pope permits priests to absolve the sin of abortion"

but according to MSNBC the Pope and priest "allow abortion", and abortion is also a "Catholic sin"????

Congrats to a former student - a novice with the Sisters of Life

A dear friend, Laura Zetzl, has been officially welcomed as a novice with the Sisters of Life.  Please pray for Sr. Lucia Christi (her new name in the Lord) and all the Sisters of Life.  They are doing great work!

Congrats Sr. Lucia!

Click here to read the story

Abortion House of Horrors - "There were screams" - Planned Parenthood doesn't always obtain consent to donate children for "research"

The sixth video from the Center for Medical Progress came out this morning

It reveals what most already knew - that Planned Parenthood doesn't always obtain permission from the mother to donate their children for "tissue research"


It also reveals what other videos had suggested as well - that Planned Parenthood adjusts its abortion techniques in order to maximize PROFIT at the EXPENSE of the mother's health.

Who's waging a war on women again?






Let's see if the media blackout by NBC, CBS, ABC and other media outlets continues with this sixth video.  Perhaps they'll realize that they have a real chance to salvage their industry by reporting the news fairly here...or perhaps they'll just continue to protect the abortion inudstry