30 November, 2011
29 November, 2011
28 November, 2011
We're Rich! We're Rich! Help spread the news!
Guess what? You probably own something that's incredibly valuable. It costs $65,000 to purchase one gallon! Don't believe me? Click on the title of this post to see for yourself.
Yippee!! We're RICH!
Yippee!! We're RICH!
Men don’t think about sex every seven seconds: study - The Globe and Mail
WOW! If men thought about sex every seven seconds, wouldn't we see their corpses all over the road? Pedestrians would be at particular risk. If they didn't step in front of a moving vehicle because the were sexually distracted, if it's a man behind the wheel it's likely he won't see the pedestrian. Thank God this 'modern myth' has been busted before we collapsed as a species!
Who the hell thinks up this stuff? And more importantly who believes it? Every seven seconds of every day? I don't think so.
Men don’t think about sex every seven seconds: study - The Globe and Mail
Who the hell thinks up this stuff? And more importantly who believes it? Every seven seconds of every day? I don't think so.
Men don’t think about sex every seven seconds: study - The Globe and Mail
Secret Planned Parenthood Memo: Stop Maternity Coverage | LifeNews.com
Secret Planned Parenthood Memo: Stop Maternity Coverage | LifeNews.com
27 November, 2011
26 November, 2011
25 November, 2011
24 November, 2011
23 November, 2011
22 November, 2011
WORLDmag.com | Silently stealing away
It’s nice to be vindicated, and tempting to gloat, but we’re not quite in the clear. If—it could happen—embryonic stem cell research finally opens up a glittering horizon in viable therapies, will we still insist on our view of when life begins? Or fudge a little? Geron had to give up the game because the results weren’t there; hence the money wasn’t there. If we were slammed against a wall equally solid—such as saying “no” to a therapy that could well save our lives—would our ethical concerns seem as real? Humans will never stop trying to be God—all the more reason for believers to strive for godliness.Read the rest by clicking on the link below.
WORLDmag.com | Silently stealing away
21 November, 2011
34 thousand Catholics more each day - Vatican Insider
According to the annual "Status of global mission" report produced in 2011, the Catholic Church has one billion and 160 million faithful around the world, with 34,000 new people joining every day. The figures from the study, released by the agency Analisis Digirtal, say that there are two billion people in the world today, out of a total of approximately seven billion, who have never received the Gospel’s message. Another two billion and 680 million listen to it sometimes, or are vaguely aware of it, but they are not Christians.
34 thousand Catholics more each day - Vatican Insider
Delia Smith wants to do for Catholicism what she has done for cooking - Telegraph
Two of my favorite things: faith and food! I hope these programs will be available in Canada.
It does though put me in mind of my favorite New Year's prayer.
"Dear God. This 2012 I would like a fat bank account and a thin body. Please don't mix them up like you did last year! Amen."
Delia Smith wants to do for Catholicism what she has done for cooking - Telegraph
It does though put me in mind of my favorite New Year's prayer.
"Dear God. This 2012 I would like a fat bank account and a thin body. Please don't mix them up like you did last year! Amen."
Delia Smith wants to do for Catholicism what she has done for cooking - Telegraph
20 November, 2011
On Secular Repentance | Crisis Magazine
"(T)here is a curious blind spot in these various calls for the Church to repent. Secular figures rarely feel a need to disavow their own complicity in crimes, even when many of them, still living to this day, bear no little guilt for atrocities that make the Church’s sins pale by comparison.Interesting perspective!
Take the Inquisition. Beyond question the Church was involved in religious trials that probably led to the deaths of several thousand people over the centuries. Though the process was conducted under a strict legal code, it was wrong to execute people for their beliefs. But as the Polish poet Cszelaw Milosz has reminded us, communism in some of the larger countries killed more people on average per day than the Church killed in centuries. Rare is the Western intellectual who supported communism and repented of that monstrous error."
On Secular Repentance | Crisis Magazine
CTV News - How much does it cost to raise a child today?
"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the cost of raising a child to the age of 18 is now a breathtaking $226,920.
For sake of perspective, a Ferrari 458 Italia Coupe will set you back $225,325. Like the former, it too may end up living in your garage long after its 18th birthday."
CTV News - How much does it cost to raise a child today?
19 November, 2011
18 November, 2011
17 November, 2011
16 November, 2011
Town Rejects Rosary as Offensive and the Prayers That Changed Everything | News | NCRegister.com
Thanks to Pacheco from SoCon for this link. The 'happy ending' is unusual these days!
Town Rejects Rosary as Offensive and the Prayers That Changed Everything | News | NCRegister.com
Town Rejects Rosary as Offensive and the Prayers That Changed Everything | News | NCRegister.com
15 November, 2011
The “Virtual” Challenge: The Spiritual Effects of an Autumn of Scandal - I've re-posted this article from a couple of years ago... because its still true today!
The “Virtual” Challenge: The Spiritual Effects of an Autumn of Scandal
Autumnal weather arrives with its attendant rites of death when we see nature passing from the verdant beauties of summer to the cold and brutish death of fall. Alas for many who claim membership in the Roman Catholic Church of Canada, it is not only dead leaves that litter the ground, but we also seem hip-deep in among the tattered remains of many a faith gravely tested.
For some, the revelations that have come to light concerning the arrest of Bishop Raymond Lahey, Bishop Emeritus of Antigonish, Nova Scotia on charges of importation of child pornography has been a killing frost laying waste their belief in the moral status of their church’s leaders, their Bishops.
Beginning with the startling news of his initial arrest and with each subsequent news development, Canadian Catholics have faced a direct and brutish challenge to their faith in the Church. This trepidation in the face of a savage hostility, rarely experienced in Canada since the passing of dark days of the Protestant - Catholic battles of the 1920’s and 30’s, has even led some to the point of formally renouncing their membership in the Catholic Church.
It is imperative that we consider the interplay of forces that has robbed so many of the beauty and the comfort of their previous convictions of faith.
In the age of the “crack-berry”, the “iphone” and wireless networks everywhere, the Internet may well be a proper place to discover, defend and engage in argument by partisans of various social schools of thought. It has become the “place” where anyone, theist or atheist, secular humanist, or other citizens of Church and State can meet and engage each other in debating the great questions of our time. Marshall McLuhan’s merging of the medium and the message is made manifest within the web pages of news sites, which act now as both objective presenters of the news of the day, and as a blank chalkboard which allows the sharing of opinion
Even the most cursory review of these posts is sufficient to prove that today’s theists’ are being pounded into submission by a tsunami of hostility and indignation from every corner.
There have been very few souls who have been willing to step into the virtual arena and take up the mantle of defending and protecting the faith. Those few that have “stepped up to the plate” have had to deal with dangerous brush back pitches that would make Phillies hurler, Pedro Martinez, blush with shame. But much as he has returned to form with the Philadelphia Phillies after an extended absence from Major League’s play, so now too is the time for partisans of all camps to work out together that “equilibrium” which John Ralston Saul describes as being essential to any vibrant society. The internet was heralded as the medium through which citizens from any corner of the globe could meet to accomplish this end.
It has, for better or for worse, succeeded.
The legion of souls won away from the Church threatens to dwarfs the largest pile of dead leaves, leaving in their passing a cultural atmosphere that is as toxic as the smoke that scents the autumn air.
As a Canadian in his 50’s who has lived in both the English and French solitudes of Ontario and Quebec, I remember the rapidity of change in the Québécois culture that accompanied “la Révolution Tranquille”. Seemingly “as in the twinkling of an eye”, the Catholic Quebec voice disappeared from debate. Now, once again the voice of Catholicism, is in danger of being rendered silent in the face of the sinfulness of its spiritual leaders. It is a truism that nothing is as firmly than “conventional wisdom” until that day when it is held no longer. One is reminded of the clarion call of John Paul II which echoed through of the Soviet Empire. It wreck asunder the altars of belief that were held to be “self-evident truths” through his inspirational call to all people to “be not afraid” in the face of oppression. Such a voice needs to be heard again.
The challenge of this current spiritual season of death has given to believers and non-believers alike the opportunity to change the conventional wisdom of the day and Catholics of all ranks and convictions ignore at their peril the challenge this poses to the Canadian church.
Revolutions come like a thief in the night. It is now time for Canada’s Bishops, currently gathered in meetings in Cornwall, Ontario, to engage fully in this debate. It is a time for them to shake off the shame that has seemed to still their previously robust voice within the public square. It is time for them to lead, to teach and to pastor their wounded flock of followers.
My experience as a participant in this debate within the threads of the C.B.C. news website exposed me to a vitriol such as I rarely faced as a priest. Yet all was not bleak and hostile. Interesting questions, like the hardy flowers of fall, pop forth from within a few of these exchanges.
One multiple poster posed the following question regarding the financial capacities of various diocese to pay the settlements, without facing bankruptcy: is the Catholic Church, like other institutions such as banks or automakers, “too big” to be allowed to fail. This may prompt the state to intervene to ensure full and just compensation to the victims of clergy sexual abuse. Some Western societies offer such supports to maintain a viable system of churches to service those citizen who would to access their services, but this has often come with costs to their freedom and liberty.
David ben Mark who identifies himself as a person of Jewish faith, reaches out in sincere compassion to Bishop Lahey.
“Just by living life we are broken into pieces and scattered into the wind and we reassemble ourselves to be broken and scattered again. We break in many different ways and none of them are pleasant. I am not ashamed of you or shamed by you.”
His is a voice reminding all that no one escapes this life without the stain of sin, even sins seemingly as heinous as what is alleged of Bishop Lahey. Yet no where in the untold bytes that comprise this “virtual space” could be seen the presence of any Bishop or priest of the Catholic Church.
The faithful have every reason to expect that it should be their religious leaders who would want for their voice to be heard in these trying times. It’s absence is keenly felt by many.
I pray that the Bishops might resolve do all that they can to help right the seriously listing ship of faith that is the Canadian Roman Catholic Church of 2009. It is long past time for them to put out of their minds the blisters, aches and pains of past scandals, and to take up the challenge of cleaning up the mess that this crisis of infidelity has wrought upon us.
If not, this Hallow’s Eve, they might find themselves hip deep and haunted by the souls of Catholics, past and present who cry out in anguish as the Catholic voice is silenced within Canada.
Copyright reserved to Fr. Tim Moyle. Publication in whole or in part is prohibited without the express permission of the author.
14 November, 2011
Should Canadians have the legal right to assisted suicide? - Your Community
Here's a chance to voice your opinion on this important debate. You will see the place to vote in the top third of the article.
Should Canadians have the legal right to assisted suicide? - Your Community
Should Canadians have the legal right to assisted suicide? - Your Community
13 November, 2011
Let the spin begin!! “Porn row” hits German Catholic bookseller, CEO explains mix-up | FaithWorld
The CEO of the publishing company states that less than 1% of their profits were generated from 'erotic' books. STUPID ANSWER! There should not be any profit because they shouldn't be selling any such books!
“Porn row” hits German Catholic bookseller, CEO explains mix-up | FaithWorld
“Porn row” hits German Catholic bookseller, CEO explains mix-up | FaithWorld
12 November, 2011
Saving some is not a compromise
Another voice suggesting that we should 'take what we can get' in the abortion debate rather than falling into an 'all or nothing' paradigm.
Saving some is not a compromise
Saving some is not a compromise
11 November, 2011
The Tablet - Publisher owned by German Church accused of selling pornography
Nooooo! Dear sweet God, Nooooo.... (sob)
What the hell were the German Bishops thinking? I'm sure they didn't add the books to the list of published works, but they have a MORAL and RELIGIOUS obligation to ensure proper stewardship of the goods of the Church. They were to ensure that such crap doesn't happen. That's a big part of their job as Bishop. They are supposed to be the best and brightest among the clerics; those individuals identified as being worthy of the mantle of leadership. YIKES!
If such incompetent oversight is what passes for proper stewardship among the Bishops, they should be fired.
But, it is surely right and proper to ask... what the hell is with the Germans? They failed to clean up their own house when they witnessed the sex abuse scandals engulf countries around the world and chose instead to rely on policies and practices that had failed everywhere else. Now they are revealed as being among Europe's leading purveyors of porn. It really, REALLY tests the patience of everyday Catholics, lay or priest to see those chosen as being the best among us continually screwing up so incredibly.
If they worked for private industry, they would all be fired. Maybe that's not such a bad idea in other pastures as well.
Fr. Tim
The Tablet - Publisher owned by German Church accused of selling pornography
What the hell were the German Bishops thinking? I'm sure they didn't add the books to the list of published works, but they have a MORAL and RELIGIOUS obligation to ensure proper stewardship of the goods of the Church. They were to ensure that such crap doesn't happen. That's a big part of their job as Bishop. They are supposed to be the best and brightest among the clerics; those individuals identified as being worthy of the mantle of leadership. YIKES!
If such incompetent oversight is what passes for proper stewardship among the Bishops, they should be fired.
But, it is surely right and proper to ask... what the hell is with the Germans? They failed to clean up their own house when they witnessed the sex abuse scandals engulf countries around the world and chose instead to rely on policies and practices that had failed everywhere else. Now they are revealed as being among Europe's leading purveyors of porn. It really, REALLY tests the patience of everyday Catholics, lay or priest to see those chosen as being the best among us continually screwing up so incredibly.
If they worked for private industry, they would all be fired. Maybe that's not such a bad idea in other pastures as well.
Fr. Tim
The Tablet - Publisher owned by German Church accused of selling pornography
Catholic priests in Dublin to face 9 per cent income cut · TheJournal
Yikes!! I sincerely hope that this does not become a trend.
Catholic priests in Dublin to face 9 per cent income cut · TheJournal
Billy Crystal to host the Oscars - The Globe and Mail
Billy Crystal to host the Oscars - The Globe and Mail
Liberal reaction to the Duggars' latest pregnancy
Evidently for liberals, it's wrong to attack a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy with an abortion... but it's fine to do so if she decides to birth a child.
Sad.
BIG BLUE WAVE: Liberal reaction to the Duggars' latest pregnancy
Sad.
BIG BLUE WAVE: Liberal reaction to the Duggars' latest pregnancy
10 November, 2011
Does God have a sense of humor? I sure hope so!
Martin begins by exploring why it is that levity has been denied its rightful place in the pantheon of Christian virtues. He writes how Christians have tended to focus on concepts of God as judge; a being who will reward or punish us for our sins and faithfulness. When one’s ultimate fate is ‘on the line’, it tends to focus one’s attention on preventing mistakes and failures. For believers, these are serious issues. Institutionally as well, Christian Churches have tended to lift the more ‘serious types’ to places of authority, their dour attitude seen as proof of the seriousness of their spiritual intent. Further, he points out that clergy of all creeds tend to deal on a daily basis with issues of suffering, illness, death, ministering to those who suffer such tragic events. Laughter is rarely heard at such times.
If we believe that Jesus was fully human and divine, is it not self-evident that laughter, joy and humor would be part of his human experience? Fr. Martin writes that if we examine Jesus' teachings and parables, we can see a human smile shining through some of them. Martin points out that Jesus was not above teasing his disciples as is evidenced by his referring to James and John as being 'sons of thunder' in the wake of their mother advocating that they be given places of honor in God's kingdom.
Martin reaches back into the Old Testament as well. He points out that Abraham and Sarah each laughed when told that they were to give birth to a son, a laughable suggestion to them given their advanced ages. When the prophecy came to pass, they gave that child the name Isaac meaning 'laughter' in their native tongue, a fact that seems forgotten by believers many centuries later.
He goes on further to examine how joy should permeate the prayer of believers, especially when giving thanks for blessings and graces received in daily life or when we recognize our human shortcomings in fulfilling our daily obligations to God and each other. It was this point that touched me deeply as I accompanied my friend through his final hours and days, thinking of the many times we had shared in a good joke or funny story throughout our long friendship, a fact I shared with others at his wake and funeral.
I heartily recommend this book as a necessary tonic and aid in rediscovering the joy of our belief, even in the face of pain and suffering.
09 November, 2011
08 November, 2011
Sorry for the absence
05 November, 2011
03 November, 2011
02 November, 2011
Rick Perry flubs Occupy Toronto quote, speech - World - CBC News
Are there ANY qualifications required to be elected governor of Texas? As hard as it to imagine... this yokel makes George W. look smart! He's been twice (or more) elected Governor of Texas and yet if this video is representative of the man, I have no doubt that he'd flunk out of 'Are You Smarter that a 5th Grader?' with empty pockets. Yikes!
Rick Perry flubs Occupy Toronto quote, speech - World - CBC News
Rick Perry flubs Occupy Toronto quote, speech - World - CBC News
01 November, 2011
Fr. Leon Belanger 28/07/25 - 01/11/11 RIP
Fr. Leon Belanger
All Saints Day, 2011
Rest in Peace
My deepest thanks to those who prayed for my brother priest. At the end, after 48 hrs of unconsciousness, he suddenly started to sing a french hymn, took two deep easy breaths and then breathed his last. May God welcome him to paradise.
Prayer request
To the friends of this blog: a prayer request.
I care for an elderly retired priest, Fr. Leon Belanger, a retired Navy Chaplain who retired into our Pembroke Diocese 22 years ago. For 15 years he provided replacement services at any parish where he was asked to go, after which he suffered from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and was left physically and mentally impaired necessitating his entry into a nursing home.
Fr. Leon is dying. He is slowly losing his battle for life at the Pembroke Regional Hospital and is now in the final stages of palliative care.
I ask you please to pray for a quick and peaceful death. He is suffering from a severe case of pneumonia as a result of a sudden inability to swallow food or water (he aspirated whatever he swallows into his lungs). With large doses of morphine and Ativan, the hospital is able to keep him almost pain free but he is still struggling for breath hour after hour.
Thanks to the aid of great friends, we have been able to ensure that he will not die alone as the three of us ensure that someone is at his side night and day. As I left the hospital early this morning, it was becoming clear that he will probably not live more than a day or two at most.
Your help, prayers and good thoughts will be appreciated to help him through this final trial.
Thank you.
Fr. Tim
I care for an elderly retired priest, Fr. Leon Belanger, a retired Navy Chaplain who retired into our Pembroke Diocese 22 years ago. For 15 years he provided replacement services at any parish where he was asked to go, after which he suffered from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and was left physically and mentally impaired necessitating his entry into a nursing home.
Fr. Leon is dying. He is slowly losing his battle for life at the Pembroke Regional Hospital and is now in the final stages of palliative care.
I ask you please to pray for a quick and peaceful death. He is suffering from a severe case of pneumonia as a result of a sudden inability to swallow food or water (he aspirated whatever he swallows into his lungs). With large doses of morphine and Ativan, the hospital is able to keep him almost pain free but he is still struggling for breath hour after hour.
Thanks to the aid of great friends, we have been able to ensure that he will not die alone as the three of us ensure that someone is at his side night and day. As I left the hospital early this morning, it was becoming clear that he will probably not live more than a day or two at most.
Your help, prayers and good thoughts will be appreciated to help him through this final trial.
Thank you.
Fr. Tim
Torches From God | The American Catholic
On this All Saints Day, I offer this article in which saints are described as the 'Torches of God'... an excellent metaphor!
Torches From God | The American Catholic
Torches From God | The American Catholic
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