Rush once again mentions Obama's failure to support DC Opportunity Scholarships...

Once again, Rush Limbaugh talked (just a few minutes ago) about the hypocrisy of Obama who sends his children to Sidwell, while knocking the DC public schools (although they have improved under Fenty and Rhee), and his failure to support the voucher program for deserving children.

Is a red hat in order?

With the appointment of Archbishop Wuerl to deal with Anglicans in the US who wish to join the Church, my hunch is that he will be made a Cardinal.

The question will then become, how much longer will he remain in Washington? Will he move on to other places -- possibly to Rome. My buddy Melvin believes that in a year or so, he will move on to a position in Rome.

Just a hunch.

This is the second time...and simply not a coincidence...

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I had heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in NYC. My thought was that it was an accident -- a fluke. Maybe bad weather (did not know the conditions that morning), maybe mechanical failure, etc. But when I heard it happened to the other building, I knew in my heart it was done on purpose.

The President of the United States has omitted the word "creator" twice. This is deliberate. This is not a silly mistake. He has done it for a reason.

CNS News has a report on this with some analysis. If you read the Forbes Magazine piece on Obama by Dinesh D'Souza, it really makes a lot of sense.

Giving Anglicans a Wuerl

Hey, it is not my title but that from Deacon Greg's blog on Catholic news and events. Brooklyn's Catholic Cable Channel - NET has conducted the first interview with Archbishop Wuerl on his appointment to the committee which will help bring in Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

For the complete story and cable television story, go here.

The Catholic Tea Kettle has just started to boil over..

Archbishop Wuerl...please take note of this article by Deal Hudson from LIFESITENEWS.COM. I think it speaks to something that has been brewing for the last few years.

Over the past two weeks, I've had extensive discussions with a wide group of Catholic leaders about the state of the Church in the United States. The frustration and impatience among Catholics, which I discussed last February in "Is It Time for a Catholic Tea Party?," continue to grow.

The occasions for this discussion were the Catholic Leadership Conference held in Philadelphia earlier this month, immediately followed by the Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference and the 15th Annual Partnership Dinner benefiting InsideCatholic, both held in Washington, D.C.

The broad background for this discontent is well known: Lay Catholics cannot understand why, over the past 30 years, more bishops haven't taken a stronger public stand on Catholic politicians who openly dissent on life and marriage issues.

Something has gone wrong when those who publicly profess the Catholic faith feel no compunction about openly defying its teachings at the urging of their bishops. On top of that, a group called "Catholics United" announces it will spend $500,000 to reelect those same politicians, all Democrats -- and not a single bishop makes any comment.

The Catholic tea kettle continues to boil, as the patience of many of the lay faithful is running out.

Anglicans: Interested in joining the Catholic Church in the US..Please call...

Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl will guide the incorporation of interested Anglican groups into the Catholic Church in the United States under the apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus,” a Vatican congregation has announced.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has named the archbishop as its delegate in this position, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reports. Archbishop Wuerl also heads the U.S. bishops’ ad hoc committee that is assisting the CDF in implementing the apostolic constitution, which Pope Benedict XVI issued in November 2009.

Other members of the ad hoc committee are Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth, Texas and Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts.

The committee is assisted by Fr. Scott Hurd. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1993, joined the Catholic Church in 1996, and was ordained a Catholic priest for the Archdiocese of Washington in 2000.

For more, go to Catholic News Agency.

A New Addition to the Blog List...

I welcome a new blog (it will now be on the blog list): Faith of the Fathers.

CCHD funding Obama's Health Care Supporters?

President Obama and administration officials are rallying religious leaders to “spread the word” on new health care legislation to reinforce public support and to raise awareness about the effects of new insurance reforms.

The organization People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO) is reportedly planning to distribute 50,000 door hangers in lower-income communities within the next two weeks. PICO regularly meets with the administration and last week participated in an HHS-run call for faith-based groups.

For more, go to Catholic News Agency.

If I remember correctly (and I don't have time to fully research), PICO and PICO related groups have and are receiving CCHD money.

Catholycs for Equality are Not Catholic

After receiving a letter from the group Catholics for Equality urging a change to the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, the Archbishop for Military Services responded, saying that the archdiocese's position is “clear.” The prelate added that the group “cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic.”

Catholics for Equality had requested a meeting with Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio, claiming he offered misleading and false arguments in his June 1 statement against allowing open homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military.

To read more, go to Catholic New Agency.

Thank you Archbishop Broglio.

I myself received a mass mailing from them to my awashingtondccatholic@gmail.com account, asking for support and money.

One of the names on the email was the Rev. Joseph Palacios. Again, I publicly ask: Does he have faculties in this Archdiocese? If yes, then why? If not, and he celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, why does not the diocese put a stop to it?

Should not part of the New Evangelization be geared towards ensuring that the faithful are not lead astray?

Catholic Standard Weekly Update

Yes folks (drum roll please), it is that time for the Catholic Standard Weekly Update.

Similiar to last week, this week's Standard has the overall theme of the Archbishop's letter on the New Evangelization. Now, I was way too busy to report on it and just skimmed over it last week.

+++++ Side Note +++++

So, as I see it (and I have not carefully studied it but skimmed over it), the New Evangelization seems to me to really focus on two areas: share the faith, but also look inside each of our parishes. There are a number of indicators which determine if a parish is healthy: Worship, Education, Community Life, Service, and Administration.

In my review of this, I noticed that there was no mention of what is to be done when there are dissident movements or priests within a parish or the diocese or , when the bishop or church groups honor those who go against our faith. There seems to be a silence that as Catholics we need to speak out about these.

+++++ End Side Note +++++

To that end, we have a new religion curriculum, something which I reported on a while back. The program "clearly states what participants in parish and Catholic elementary school religious education programs should be able to know, understand and do at each grade level." (Catholic Standard, Page 3). The program has six key elements: knowledge of faith, liturgy and sacraments; morality; prayer; education for living in Christian community (maybe it should be Catholic community) and evangelization and apostolic life.

We also have a story, which is linked to the New Evangelization, about Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian parishioners "taking it to the street." In other words, knocking on doors and invited folks to join them. We also see the Archbishop discussing it at the Labor Day Mass. And he visits GWU. And he shows off the New Evangelization poster to employees. He is all over the place.

Congratulations to St. John the Baptist Elementary School. They are a Blue Ribbon Award winner!!!

We have two articles on bullying both physical and cyber.

We also have Msgr. Holley's visit to Ghana (former Gold Coast) and Nigeria.

We do not have any information about how the bishops voted on CCHD, nor do we have any stories about the layoffs at St. Mark's School. Maybe there will be something next week. Maybe not.

Remember to pick up a copy of it at your parish, since they are required to accept a number of copies each week. And, drop a couple of coins in the basket to help pay for it.

Georgetown University and Catholics for Equality

The Cardinal Newman Society reports about Catholics (it really should be Catholycs) for Equality, an organization made up of catholycs who support same sex marriages, attempt to show that the Catholic Church is wrong on this issue, and that catholycs do support this issue (and to sway others). I wrote about this a few weeks ago.

One of the founders is a Rev. Joseph Palacios, who is also an assistant professor at Georgetown. He admits he is gay and has challenged the Church on the issue of gay marriage for many years.

So, my question is this: Has the Archdiocese granted him faculties? If yes, why have they not revoked his faculties?

If anyone knows the answer to these questions, please comment or write to me.

Note: Faculties means he is allowed to hear confession, offer Mass, etc. in an Archdiocese/Diocese.

Archibishop Wuerl to Speak at U. of St. Thomas (Houston) -- And Mayor Fenty...

Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. is slated to lecture on the topic of religious faith in shaping American society at the University of St. Thomas in Houston next month.

The speech, titled “Religious Faith’s Role in Building a Good and Just Society,” will mark the first lecture for the Center for Faith and Culture's Master of Arts in Faith and Culture program. The talk will be held on Oct. 20, in the Chapel of St. Basil on campus.

For the complete story, go to Catholic News Agency.

+++++++++++++++
UPDATE:

It seems that Washington DC Mayor Fenty has lost the Democratic primary. I wonder if Holy Rosary Church will continue, after he is no longer mayor, to have Mayor Fenty's mother as the guest of honor for this event or that event. (PS: I don't know the Mayor's mother, never met her. This is about Holy Rosary Church and not about her.)

VOTF - Those Faithful Catholics

Diogenes of CatholicCulture.org has once again points out, such as I have in the past, that VOTF is what they make themselves out to be. They are dissidents. Look, they are still meeting at Holy Trinity (Sept. 25th is their next meeting w/ Fr. Reese as a speaker -- a dissident group hosting the former editor of a dissident magazine) and "underground" at St. Rose of Lima.

Check out his piece here.

A Very Interesting Conversation...St. Francis International School

I had a very interesting conversation with someone today from St. Mark's Parish.

This person, I will call her "Marge" told me an interesting story. "Marge" has a child/children at St. Mark's (now part of St. Francis International).

When the issue of closing St. Mark's School was announced, earlier this year, the Archdiocese of Washington told the school that they could remain open, as long as they raised $90,000.

The parents killed themselves and raised $87,000. When they went to the Archdiocese, they were told that the school would close, even though they were short $3K.

She asked me if I had any idea where the money raised would have gone? The only thing I could tell Marge was to ask the pastor. I can only speculate that it was to pay down the debt.

In addition, they have less than the 500 enrolled currently at St. Francis, which was stated in the Catholic Standard last week. She figures, that there are just under 400 (give or take a few) at the schools. Remember, there are two buildings.

In fact, a letter went out from the pastor of St. Mark's announcing layoffs of one of the principals and vice-principals due to the low enrollment earlier this week.

I bet you won't see that in this week's Catholic Standard.

Don't let it be said that I did not warn you of this.

Want to earn up to $25,000...

Considering all of the abuses reported recently with Planned Parenthood and other death merchants...

++++++++++++++++

Operation Rescue has announced that it is raising the reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of abortionists who are breaking the law from $10,000 to $25,000 effective immediately.

Abortion abuses that are of particular interest are:

·Overbilling
·Embezzlement
·Financial Fraud
·Medical Fraud
·Misappropriation of tax dollars
·Drug violations
·Sex abuse/rape
·Non-reporting of child sex crimes
·Medical negligence
·Abortion deaths
·Forced/coerced abortions
·HIPPA violations
·Illegal dumping/storage of human remains
·Unlicensed abortionists/abortion workers/abortion clinics
·Substance abuse

The group urged those with information about abortion crimes to immediately contact them at 316-683-6790 ext. 155 or e-mail at abortionwhistleblower(at)gmail.com.

For the complete story...go to LifeSiteNews.Com

An Update - Illegal Alien indicted in Death of Nun

The illegal immigrant accused of killing a Benedictine nun in a drunken driving crash in Prince William County has been indicted for murder.

Carlos A. Martinelly Montano, 23, now faces a charge of felony murder, court records show, for the Aug. 1 crash that killed Sister Denise Mosier, 66.
Authorities allege that Montano was drunk when a Subaru Outback he was driving struck a guardrail then collided head-on with a car carrying Mosier and two other nuns on Bristow Road near Wright Lane.

Montano was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter, drunken driving, and driving on a revoked license.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Illegal-immigrant-indicted-for-murder-in-nun_s-death-785596-102473089.html#ixzz0z2TFUgd1

I was thinking...(and that can be dangerous)...

I was thinking, over the last few weeks, how the Archdiocese of Washington education policies will affect parents this year and long into the future.

As I speak to some of my friends -- Catholics who have children in Catholic school -- I have come to realize that it does not affect them. Why? Because they are not aware of the changes.

Many of them go about their normal everyday business -- work, home, children, fundraisers for the Church/School, etc. -- and are just too consumed with the normal everyday things. For them, they have no idea that these changes even took place.

In addition, although there was coverage earlier in the year in the Standard, things have become very quite and announced only after the fact. Look at the change for St. Jude's.

I don't fault them in the least bit but I was thinking if this was really part of what the Archdiocese was/is counting on.

What do you think?

The Mother Teresa Stamp...

This video, from Catholic News Agency, discusses the Mother Teresa stamp. Bishop Knestout, of the Archdiocese of Washington, is quoted in it.

From the Catholic News Agency.

Catholic Standard Weekly Update

Yes, folks, it is that time again (trumpets blare, drums roll): The Catholic Standard Weekly Update.

The cover focuses on one of the new regional schools: St. Francis International School. This story also continues on Page 5 and 6.

We have some clergy appointments. This now seems to be a regular feature in the Standard appearing on Page 2 (inside cover).

There are some stories on the 5th Anniversary of Katrina.

Since it is Labor Day weekend, we have a couple of stories on the economy and labor.

We do have a Reflection by a retired worker on Labor Day by Bob Stewart. Mr. Stewart also wrote a piece last year. However, just like last year, the Catholic Standard left out of his biography that he was the head of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) at Holy Trinity -- a dissident group. Of course, no one ever mentions the corruption of union leadership in their labor day messages, or how unions are big supporters of gay marriages, abortion, etc., or the violence they committed in support of Obama's Health Care Disaster. But, let's not let these little things stand in the way of a good opinion piece.

We have a good story on Lech Walesa by George Weigel.

The Standard has the center insert dealing with the Maryland Catholic Conference survey of candidates for Maryland Governor, Assembly and US Congress.

I would have thought that Fr. Daly's Parish Diary would reflect on Labor Day. Nope. He decided to step right into the NYC Mosque and as always, gets in way over his head on this and really misses the point.

• Did you see any mention of his support for the Orthodox Church which stood across the street from the WTC, which is cannot be rebuilt? Nope.
• Did you see any mention of the fact that the person who is pushing for the "mosque" wants to establish Sharia law in the US? I did not.
• Did you see any mention that there are apx. 100 mosques in NYC currently? Nope.
• Did you see any information that this person who wishes to establish the Mosque has changed his story a couple of times or that he is a slum lord. Nope.

I wonder if Fr. Daly was opposed to Disney's America?

We have an article about the County Council candidate forum sponsored by the Justice and Advocacy Council of MoCo of the Archdiocese of Washington. Our colleague over at Restore DC Catholicism was there and reported on it. There was no question and answer period, there was no mention of abortion, the strong arm tactics against pro-life centers, the opposition to tax credits for Catholic school parents, no discussion of gay marriage, etc.

Tell me, does not Social Justice apply to the unborn? Does not Social Justice call for tax relief to those parents who save MoCo millions of dollars each year who send their children to Catholic Schools? Does not Social Justice apply to pro-life centers. Yet not one word was asked of these candidates at the forum. FOR SHAME!

And you wonder why many of us do not trust the "social justice" crowd.

Finally, I found a very interesting article by Carole Norris Greene. She is on to something here that many of us see, but we really don't see. Take a look at it and let me know what you think.

Some Catholic Humor for a long weekend...

From an email circulating on the Internet
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In Washington DC, an old priest lay dying in the hospital.

For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital. He motioned for his nurse to come near.

"Yes, Father?" said the nurse.

"I would really like to see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before I die", whispered the priest. "I'll see what I can do, Father", replied the nurse.

The nurse sent the request to The House and Senate waited for a response. Soon the word arrived; Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi would be delighted to visit the priest.

As they went to the hospital, Reid commented to Pelosi, "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images and might even get me re-elected." Pelosi agreed that it was a good thing.

When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Reid's hand in his right hand and Pelosi's hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.

Finally Nancy Pelosi spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"

The old priest slowly replied, "I have always tried to pattern my life after Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

"Amen", said Reid.

"Amen", said Pelosi.

The old priest continued, "Jesus died between two lying thieves; I would like to do the same."

Catholic Standard Weekly Update

I know that I am way behind on this (like many things in my life these days) but I just wanted to share some thoughts with you about the latest issue of the Catholic Standard...

• Looks like Archbishop Wuerl will issue a pastoral letter on the new evangelization, entitled: "Disciples of the Lord: Sharing the Vision."
  
• There are a series of articles on Mother Teresa. Nice.
• A full page on the installation of new pastors.
  
• Congrats to those educators who are celebrating 25 years of more in Catholic Schools. THANK YOU and GOD BLESS.
  
• The Maryland Catholic Conference on issues faced by Maryland voters makes no mention of illegal aliens as an issue. Wonder why?
  
• Louis Brown of the Maryland Catholic Conference stated that the economy continues to stabilize. Who is he kidding?
  
• Some photos of the rebuilding of St. John School in Hollywood, as well as, some of the school openings in Calvert and St. Mary's Counties.
  
• We have an advertisement on page 12 by Georgetown University. Yes, that same hotbed of dissent. Why would you accept their copy?
  

Well, that's all for now.