For commentary on the first part of this video click on this story below:
Planned Parenthood official defends post-birth abortions
Go to minute 5:17 to see the exchange between a legislator and the PP official on transporting a child born alive after a failed abortion to a hospital:
During the Papal conclave, EWTN had the best backdrop, the best commentary, the best guests and the best coverage. All of it free of odd secular political context.
Their live coverage on March 13, 2013 when the white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel was not just better than the national U.S. television media. It was superior.
Colleen Carroll Campbell who was EWTN’s anchor for the live event, gracefully moderated her guests when they didn’t know when the smoke would come or what color it would be. The guests were knowledgable and interesting. The guests educated the viewers on the history of the papacy, the conclave and many other things of Catholic significance. The other national U.S. television media just couldn’t do it. That’s why many, including myself, tuned to EWTN and received superior coverage.
I don’t mean to throw EWTN into a competition with our secular national media but, EWTN smoked them. “White” smoked them!
I hope and pray EWTN can continue to do more. They proved their superiority in this coverage of the conclave that elected Pope Francis. God bless their good work.
O Holy Spirit, strengthen us to defend all that is holy.
Peter L. Hodges Sr.
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Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is Pope Francis. He is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first South American to be elected Pope.
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Lord God,
Our eternal shepherd and guide
In your mercy grant your Church a shepherd
Who will walk in your ways
And whose watchful care will bring us your blessing.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost,
One God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Tagged Catholic, Catholic Church, catholicism, Prayer for the Election of a Pope
The Catholic Church does not call for disarming the people. As you will see below the Church calls for legitimate defense. The duty to legitimately defend implies the capacity to do so. That is to say that the person responsible for the lives of his family is sufficiently prepared to stop a potential aggressor who is armed by being armed hisself. Therefore, the banning of firearms makes it impossible to defend and uphold the common good in one’s household and also in the community by a civil authority. CCC section 2265 shows that the civil authority’s responsibility to repel an aggressor is secondary to the person’s grave duty to repel an aggressor when it states that those in authority “also” have the right to use arms. This allows one to reason that the responsibility belongs to and starts with the person. The conclusion is that the banning of firearms is illegitimate and contrary to Catholic teaching because it undermines and disrespects a person’s right to life as shown in CCC 2264.
The following sections are excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (CCC 2263-2265.) These sections are in the context of what is legitimate defense under the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not kill.”:
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CCC 2263 The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor…. the one is intended, the other is not.”
CCC 2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:
If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful…. Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s.
CCC 2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.
O Holy Spirit, strengthen us to defend all that is holy.
Peter L. Hodges Sr.
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Tagged arms, catechism of the catholic church, Catholic, catholicism, christianity, firearms, gun control, guns, politics, religion
Below is the statement from the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI announcing his resignation in a written statement and the video of him reading the statement:
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Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonisations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Video (Notice Cardinal Burke’s eyes and body language as he gets the gravity of the Pope’s words. Cardinal Burke is seated on the right side of the screen in red):
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Pray that the Holy Spirit will breathe into the Cardinals as they prepare to select our next Pope.
O Holy Spirit, strengthen us to defend all that is holy.
Peter L. Hodges Sr.
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Tagged Catholic, catholicism, christianity, Pope Benedict XVI, religion
This Sunday, February 3rd is the Feast of St. Blaise. Bishop and Martyr. On this day we can have our throats blessed by our Priest at Mass.
As a child I had a sore throat on the Feast of St. Blaise and after my throat was blessed I realized on the car ride home that my sore throat was gone. I can’t wait for Sunday because my wife and I have sore throats. I pray I have this miracle for the second time in my life and for the first time in wife’s life.
Excerpt below is from EWTN’s Saints page:
“It is not known precisely when or where St. Blaise lived, but according to tradition he was a bishop of Sebaste, Armenia, in the early part of the fourth century, and suffered martyrdom under the Roman emperor Licinius, who had commanded the governor of the province, one Agricolaus, to prevent the spread of Christianity in his territory. After this edict had been promulgated, Blaise fled to the mountains and lived in a cave frequented by wild beasts. He used his skill to heal the animals that he found wounded or sick, and when the emperor’s hunters, bent on collecting wild animals for the royal games, discovered him in this cave, they carried him off to Agricolaus as a special prize.
On the way, the story goes, they met a poor woman whose pig had been seized by a wolf. At the command of Blaise, the wolf restored the pig to its owner, alive and unhurt. During the course of this journey he also miraculously cured a child who was choking to death on a fishbone. For this reason St. Blaise is often invoked by persons suffering from throat trouble. When he had reached the capital and was in prison awaiting execution, the old woman whose pig he had saved came to see him, bringing two fine wax candles to dispel the gloom of his dark cell. When he was finally killed, he is supposed to have been tortured with an iron comb or rake, and afterwards beheaded. In the West there was no cult honoring St. Blaise prior to the eighth century.
One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, his emblems are an iron comb and a wax taper.”
Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsholy/saints/B/stblaise.asp#ixzz2JgsTMMGV
O Holy Spirit, strengthen us to defend all that is holy.
Peter L. Hodges Sr.
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Tagged Catholic, catholicism, christianity, miracles, St. Blaise
O Most bountiful God, I sincerely and humbly thank Thee for all Thy many benefits to me during the past year, and for the privilege of beginning a new year. Do Thou mercifully continue Thy gracious help and protection, so that I may not only spend this year in Thy service, but may also increase from day to day in fervor and in the performance of good works. May all my thoughts, words and actions be for Thy greater honor and glory, for my own sanctification and for the good of souls. These favors I ask from Thy goodness through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who for our salvation first shed His Precious Blood on this day. Amen.
As published in BLESSED BE GOD A Complete Catholic Prayer Book © 1925 by Very Rev. Charles J. Callan, O.P., S.T.M. and Very Rev. John A. McHugh, O.P., S.T.M.
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This prayer is offered for the departed in Newtown, Connecticut who were murdered on December 14, 2012.
Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, O Lord, shalt mark iniquities; Lord, who shall stand? For with Thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of Thy law I have waited for Thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on His word; my soul hath hoped in the Lord. From the morning watch even unto night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with the Lord there is mercy, and in Him plentiful redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
O Lord! hear my prayer.
And let my cry come unto Thee.
Amen
As published in BLESSED BE GOD A Complete Catholic Prayer Book © 1925 by Very Rev. Charles J. Callan, O.P., S.T.M. and Very Rev. John A. McHugh, O.P., S.T.M.
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The following is the definition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, given by Pope Pius IX, December 8, 1854.
“For the honor of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, We declare, pronounce and define, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and Our own, that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, was, by singular grace and privilege of God, in view of the merits of Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the Human race, preserved free from every stain of original sin, has been revealed by God and is therefore to be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful. Wherefore if any should presume, which God forbid, to think otherwise in their hearts than We have defined, let them know and be certain that they have been condemned by their own judgment, that they have made shipwreck in faith, that they have fallen away from the unity of the Church; and furthermore, that, should they dare to manifest in word or writing, or in any other external way, what they think in their hearts, they subject themselves by this very act to the penalties prescribed by law.”
Source: Catechism of the Council of Trent, Appendix I
