Priest Reassignments Are Being Announced

At this time of year, we begin to see a number of changes to priest assignments. I have heard from a few and it will probably be announced in the Catholic Standard over the next few weeks.

Has this taken place in your parish? Maybe you are happy with it. Maybe not.

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Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.

General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

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Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.
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The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, "of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from hishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.

It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to lend its friendly aid in bringing to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

Department commanders will use efforts to make this order effective.
By order of
JOHN A. LOGAN,Commander-in-Chief
N.P. CHIPMAN,Adjutant General
Official:WM. T. COLLINS, A.A.G.

We Remember and We Thank You!

Repeal the Dream Act -- Was I Wrong on This or What!

Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.

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Well folks, I was wrong on the Maryland Dream Act. Yep, hard to believe. Even harder to believe that I would admit to it, but I am.

You see the figure of $16,000 per student seems to a bit high. It is actually about $12,000 per illegal alien for a two year period. The total cost was seen as $800K in the first year, and $3million at the end of the third year.

It also seems that the figures provided by Legislative Reference were only for one (1) community college, not for the sixteen (16) that are in the State of Maryland.

Therefore, if there are apx. 1,000 illegal aliens, each costing the taxpayer $12K, the ACTUAL COST IS $12million minimum per year.

Now, the state believes there will be apx. 5,000 illegal alien students eligible per year, so you do the math.

Oh, and don't forget, after community college comes the four year programs. How much more will that cost us?

Sign the petition!

Stop the hijacking of your tax dollars by CASA of MD and the Maryland Catholic Conference to support illegal activities. Send them a message that if we do not tolerate this type of behavior by them.

Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.

Help Democracy Work: Put the Repeal of the Dream Act on the Ballot

Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.

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It is time for all Catholics (and non-Catholics) to allow the people of Maryland to vote if they support the Maryland Dream Act.

Remember the following:

• These are illegal aliens who have broken Federal law


• For each illegal alien who attends a Maryland college, it will cost the taxpayers $16,00o per student in today's cost.


• It will cost (a conservative estimate) over $3million per year to the Maryland taxpayers

Give the citizens of Maryland the opportunity to vote on this. Why was this rammed down our throats.

By doing so, you will also be sending a message to the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) that we will not tolerate their support of this measure and their association with Casa of Maryland. In addition, this puts them in bed with the same politicians who support gay marriage and abortion.

Repeal the Maryland DREAM Act & Abolish the MCC

Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.

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The Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) released a statement praising Gov. O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly for supporting the DREAM ACT. As always, the MCC hides the fact that they are supporting people who have BROKEN FEDERAL LAW and who know that they are breaking the law.

What should strike everyone about their statement is that there is NO MENTION that these men and women are ILLEGAL ALIENS. There is no mention that for each ILLEGAL ALIEN who attends college at an in-state tuition rate, it will cost taxpayers $16,000 per ILLEGAL ALIEN. And who pays for that? You, and you, and you and me.

The MCC says they do not condone breaking the law but by are rewarding those who have broken the law. Maybe the MCC should give out a $1000 check to the person or persons who break into a Catholic Church or Catholic institution?

Sounds crazy, but that is what the MCC is supporting. They are supporting those who have entered the country ILLEGALLY and rewarding them for it.

Therefore, I am calling on all Catholics and non-Catholics to sign the petition to put the DREAM ACT on the ballot in November. (The link is below.) It is important to tell the Governor, the Maryland Assembly and the MCC that we do not condone those who are here illegally, nor should they be rewarded.

In addition, I am calling on Cardinal Wuerl and the other bishops to abolish the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) and all employees who support the rewarding of ILLEGAL activities. I URGE YOU TO DO THIS IMMEDIATELY!

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Click here to sign the petition to REPEAL THE MARYLAND DREAM ACT.

Contact Cardinal Wuerl and ask him to abolish the

Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC).

I always believed it was mainly homosexuals...

in the Priesthood, who committed the most abuse, which has hurt the Church immensely. Now it does not mean that there were not pedophiles, nor does it mean that those priests were not only gay but also pedophiles.

Catholic News Service reports the following:

Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a top psychiatrist and authority on treating sexually abusive priests, told CNA that he is “very critical” of the findings because they avoid discussing important causal factors in clerical sex abuse cases, namely homosexuality.

For the complete article, click here.

A Reader Needs Some Help...

A reader has posed a question to me:

We (her and her husband) live in the Diocese of Arlington. They are looking for a traditional Catholic Church in the district. We have been to St. Mary's (in Chinatown) but wonder if there are others. Can you help?

In the past, our readers have suggested: St. Bernadette's in Silver Spring, MD, St. John Newman (Gaithersburg) and Little Flower (Bethesda).

Any in the district that someone can recommend? (Oh, and please don't recommend Trinity in Georgetown.)

Social Workers/Justice protest Boehner Speach at CUA

It has been reported on a number of blogs, like the Deacon's Bench, of the protest against Speaker John Boehner. You see, he will be speaking at the Catholic University of American graduation and will receive an honorary law doctorate.

It seems that the graduating social workers (among a number of professors), like Katy Jamison, protested this speech. Now, to her credit, did not jump up and down, bum rush the podium, or called in a bomb threat. She, like others, wore a sign protesting the visit and did not stand and clap.

What was she and others protesting? Well, all of the horrible cuts he will make to programs which help the poor and "repressed".

I guess Mrs./Miss (?) Jamison must be taking about the housing programs to help the poor, such as the ones run by HUD.

In particular, she must be talking about the one in Prince George’s County, the nonprofit Kairos Development Corp. (PG County), who received $750,000 in 2005 to build dozens of homes and has still not built one house.

Or if not that one, how about the one in Newark, NJ which the city paid a contractor $400,000 to build duplex houses but after a decade of delay, the developer folded and never finished the project.

No?

Could it be she is really worried that she will not be able to get a job paid for out of a government grant?

Meethinks, she protests too much.

Holding Hands During the Our Father

A while back, I wrote about the practice of holding hands during the Our Father. Well, Fr. Z has chimed in on it. You can read about it here.

PS: It seems that he blog went down for a couple of hours earlier and deleted my last post on the corruption of the Social Justice Directors in the Catholic Church. Will repost it another time.

Catholic Social Justice is "Corrupted"

May 11, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a video released today, American Life League, the nation’s largest Catholic pro-life group, has called for a complete investigation of Catholic social justice organizations for embracing population control advocate Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.

Entitled “Aborting Poverty”, the investigative video outlines Dr. Jeffrey Sachs’ history of population control as the primary means for ending poverty. According to the video, Dr. Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University, has said one of the best ways to fight poverty rates is to reduce population growth and fertility rates with voluntary birth control, sterilizations, and abortion.

To view the video, click here.

Repeal the Maryland Dream Act

Do you know, that for every illegal alien attending one of our colleges and/or universities in Maryland, it will cost us over $16,ooo per student? Do you know who will pay for it? You.

Do you feel it is both illegal and immoral to assist those who are in this country illegally?

Do you want to repeal the Maryland Dream Act which gives those who are in the US illegally, the same tuition rates as those who are here legally?

Well then, help repeal the Maryland Dream Act

Click on the link to begin the process. You must be a legal resident of the State of Maryland and listed on their voter rolls.

For the Catholyc Left, now that Osama Bin Laden is dead...

Although the effort to find Osama Bin Laden took a number of years, it has been basically agreed upon that the key piece of information, which eventually lead to his departure from the Earth, was obtained through one of the "torture" sessions.

For many years, the Catholyc Left (and many of our bishops) had no problem lambasting the Bush administration over torture and "secret prisons."

So my questions to the Catholyc Left are:

• If this information was obtained by torture, and you do not support torture, then why are you not protesting in front of the White House and demanding trials of those who used this information to go after him.



• Why are you not asking for the heads of the Navy Seals who killed him? I mean, some of the reports are saying that he was unarmed, and was killed afterwards. How could you condone this? Will you call for the resignation of Obama? How about taking to the streets?



• If you felt that we should have gone after him, to either kill him or capture him, then does this change your view of the methods used to obtain this information? If yes, explain. If no, please explain.

There seems to be a deadly silence on the Catholyc Left over these and other questions.

Odds and Ends

1. Our colleague over at Restore DC Catholicism, shows that the the USCCB is involved in a "Circle of Protection" which is aimed at protecting cuts from a variety of social programs. When I saw that phase it seemed odd and that I had heard it before. Well, I did. I guess the folks over at USCCB did not do a search on the term but it is one used by Wiccans. Of course, those of you into the MAGIC game, will also recognize that term too. Would the phase "Circle of Dunces" be more appropriate?

2. Not only do we have VOTF in the Archdiocese but also Pax Christi. Although the goal of peace is a laudible one, their belief is to gut the military. I personally think we should begin to gut some some of the wasteful social programs first. Social programs account for a larger amount of the US budget when combined, than the US military. The "War of Poverty" has been around since the late 1960's but i don't see a defeat in it yet. It is the longest "war" the US has been involved in. All I see is that we are pumping more money into social programs, via tax revenue, and then being asked to donate on top of that, adds insult to injury, and yet there are no results. (Heads up to Restore DC Catholicism.)

3. Did you make not of the Social Ministry Conference in the Archdiocese? Heavily pushed in the Catholic Standard, it looked like it may have hit the couple of dozen mark in attendance. (Photos do not begin to show the huge attendance numbers. I guess the camera lens was just too small to get the full depth of the crowd.) However, the Catholic Standard noted that one of the key concerns of the Social Justice Conference was 'gun control.' Now, depending upon who you are, will determine if you support gun control. If you are a criminal, you do, because you know the only people who respect restrictive gun laws are law abiding citizens. Criminals do not. Or if you are one of those who believe that guns kill, people do not. I believe that good gun control means being able to hold your revolver/semi-automatic, with either one or two hands, and hit your target dead on.

Do we need a new seminary?

A few months ago, it was announced that the Archdiocese of Washington would establish a seminary at Catholic University of America.

Now, the idea of creating a seminary sounds exciting and there is nothing wrong with it. It is at a local Catholic university (Catholic University of America) and to be named after Blessed Pope John Paul II.

However, in my reading though the Catholic Standard articles and from various news sources, the explanation given is that they are sending men outside of the area for formation. Okay, so where are they currently sending them? Is it to Mt. St. Mary's? That is about a 1.5 hour drive from downtown DC. That is too far outside of the area? If not there, where? I could not find the answer to that one.

At least to me, there does not seem to be any reason for this other than to say "We have a Seminary."

Although the Archdiocese has stated that this has been paid out of private donations, I dare to ask: "Is this a good use of our donations and limited resources?"

If anyone has a better explanation, please share.

I would love to hear from you, esp. anyone from the Archdiocese.

Did Cardinal Wuerl violate Church Liturgical Law?

This past Holy Thursday, as with many over the last few years, Cardinal Wuerl washed the feet of twelve men and women. We know this, because of a photo in the Catholic Standard.

According to Church Liturgical Law, only men can be chosen for this (viri selecti). Now, although the USCCB may have received some sort of approval for women to participate, you would think that the would follow liturgical law.

VOTF at St. Rose of Lima on May 11th

Hey folks, it looks like those wild and crazy VOTF "reformers" will be meeting at St. Rose of Lima on May 11th. And, you will never guess who will be in a "virtual attendance?" They will view a DVD of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a retired auxiliary of the Sydney, Australia archdiocese.

Those who are in dissent with the Roman Catholic Church, just love this man. They are just gushing with praise, so much so, that mops and buckets need to be brought in. Remember that the Australian bishops had issued a public statement warning of the doctrinal difficulties with his book in 2008.

Again, why is VOTF, a dissenting organizaton meeting on Church property? This is like the old saying of letting the fox in the hen house.

Hyattsville? Anyone there paying attention?