St. Gianna Beretta Molla MD

Mary Suffered Suspicions And Accusations

"The one who exemplifies for us the way of self-abandonment to God in every situation was not free from the prosaic situations in life, from the all-too-common suspicions and accusations. The difficult experiences did not diminish her faith. God led her through them in a way known only to Him. Moreover, she accepted every design of God."

(In the Arms of Mary, pg. 127)

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St Gianna Beretta Molla MD

Feastday: April 28
Patron of mothers, physicians, and unborn children 
Birth: October 4, 1922
Death: April 28, 1962
Beatified By: April 24, 1994 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized By: May 16, 2004 by Pope John Paul II

St. Gianna Beretta Molla was an Italian pediatrician born in Magenta in the Kingdom of Italy on October 4, 1922. She was the tenth of thirteen children in her family.

At three-years-old, Gianna and her family moved to Bergamo, and she grew up in the Lombardy region of Italy.

As a young girl, Gianna openly accepted her faith and the Catholic-Christian education provided to her from her loving parents. She grew up viewing life as God's beautiful gift and found the greatest necessity and effectiveness in prayer.

In 1942, Gianna began her study of medicine in Milan. She was a diligent and hardworking student, both at the university and in her faith.

As a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Gianna applied her faith in an apostolic service for the elderly and needy.

She received degrees in both medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949, and in 1950 she opened a medical office in Mesero, near her hometown of Magenta.

In 1952, Gianna specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan and from there on, she was especially drawn toward mothers, babies, the elderly and the poor.

Gianna considered the field of medicine to be her mission, and treated it as such. She increased her generous service to Catholic Action, a movement of lay Catholics dedicated to living and spreading the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church in the broader culture. The Catholic Action movement is still at work today, throughout the world.

Gianna hoped to join her brother, a missionary priest in Brazil, where she intended to offer her medical expertise in gynecology to poor women.

However, her chronic ill health made this impractical, and she continued her practice in Italy.

She chose the vocation of marriage and considered this to be a gift from God. Gianna embraced this gift with all her being and completely dedicated herself to "forming a truly Christian family."

In December 1954, Gianna met Pietro Molla, an engineer who worked in her office. They were officially engaged the following April, and married in September 1955, making Gianna a happy wife.

Gianna wrote to Pietro, "Love is the most beautiful sentiment that the Lord has put into the soul of men and women."

In November 1956, Gianna became a mother to her first child, Pierluigi. Their second child, Maria Zita, in December 1957, and their third, Laura, in July 1959.

Gianna handled motherhood with grace and was able to harmonize all aspects of her demanding life.

In 1961, Gianna became pregnant with her fourth child. Toward the end of her second month of pregnancy, Gianna was struck with an unimaginable pain.

Her doctors discovered she had developed a fibroma in her uterus, meaning she was carrying both a baby and a tumor.

After examination, the doctors gave her three choices: an abortion, which would save her life and allow her to continue to have children, but take the life of the child she carried; a complete hysterectomy, which would preserve her life, but take the unborn child's life, and prevent further pregnancy; or removal of only the fibroma, with the potential of further complications, which could save the life of her baby.

Catholic teaching affirms what medical science, the Natural Law, the Bible and unbroken Christian tradition affirm, the child in the womb has a fundamental Human Right to Life. Wanting to preserve her child's life, Gianna opted for the removal of only the fibroma.

In fact, she was willing to give her own life to save the life of her child.

Gianna pleaded with the surgeons to save her child's life over her own. She sought comfort in her prayers and her living faith.

The child's life was saved, for which Gianna graciously thanked the Lord.

After the operation, complications continued throughout her pregnancy, but Gianna spent the remainder of her pregnancy with an unparalleled strength and insistent dedication for her tasks as a mother and a doctor.

A few days before the baby was to be born, Gianna prayed the Lord take any pain away from the child. She recognized she may lose her life during delivery, but she was ready.

Gianna was quite clear about her wishes, expressing to her family, "If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child?I insist on it. Save the baby."

On April 21, 1962, Gianna Emanuela Molla successfully delivered by Caesarean section.

The doctors tried many different treatments and procedures to ensure both lives would be saved. However, on April 28, 1962, a week after the baby was born, Gianna passed away from septic peritonitis. She is buried in Mesero.

Gianna was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994, and officially canonized as a saint on May 16, 2004. Her husband and their children, including Gianna Emanuela, attended her canonization ceremony, making this the first time a husband witnessed his wife's canonization.

In 2003, mother-to-be Elizabeth Comparini experienced a tear in her placenta when she was 16-weeks pregnant. Her womb was drained of all amniotic fluid. She was told the chances of her baby's survival was little to none. Elizabeth is said to have prayed to Gianna Molla and asked for her intercession. Elizabeth was able to give birth to a healthy baby.

During Gianna's canonization ceremony, John Paul II described her as, "a simple, but more than ever, significant messenger of divine love."

St. Gianna is the inspiration behind the first pro-life Catholic healthcare center for women in New York, the Gianna Center.

St. Gianna Beretta Molla is the patron saint of mothers, physicians, and unborn children. Her feast day is celebrated on April 28.

It is the Mark of a True Christian to Love Our Enemies

What does it mean to hate the sin, but love the sinner. This is a hard teaching; who can understand it. Yet with God all things are possible.

As Catholics we are hated by all. Now where is this more evident than in the political realm.

Those on the left hate us, because we are pro-life, and although we do not condemn homosexuals, we are not ready to raise the practice of homosexuality to normalcy.

Those on the right hate us for the same reasons -- we are pro-life all of life. Certainly of the conceived, but also of those who are already born. They also hate us because although we do not sanction homosexual acts, we love the homosexual.

And we love the poor and the immigrant.

And how do we show our love, by standing up for them.

Many Catholics cannot stand up for the homosexual, lest we be seen as sanctioning their activity.  Yet, none of us are without sin, and none of us have actually witnessed their sin.

Is Caitlin Jenner a sinner? Sick? Misguided? Confused?

What is sin? For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." CC 1857

Does the homosexual know he/she is committing sin? The abolitionist? The Catholic politician who supports choice? The Christian politician who opposes choice, and yet votes against supporting the born?

Who am I to say? Am I Jesus? Do I know, can I see a persons heart? Can I read their mind?

It is hard to love my enemies, and who are my enemies, save those who have sinned against me. But what of those who have not sinned against me personally, but whom I judge for having sinned against God. 

If I love people, I have no time to love them -- St. Theresa of Calcutta.

Who am I to judge? -- Pope Francis I

I consider myself to be a member of Democrats for Life of America http://www.democratsforlife.org/. I am pro-life for the whole life. 

To love my enemies, do I sit quietly while fellow Catholics vote for abortion and it's expansion, or, hold strong to the belief, one which I once held -- it is not up to me. for me now this view which once made so much sense and seemed perfectly right and justified seems so foreign. There is a child in the womb at conception, a child which is entitled to all the rights I have -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The child in the womb's mother and father is also entitled to these rights, but our rule of law encompasses the idea that we are not entitled to excersize our rights at the expense of another's. Even in the womb the child is entitled to the same rights of the mother. who is the enemy in this situation, who is the enemy that I must love, in order to be a follower of Christ and have my soul saved for eternity.

Do I deny my love to the abortionist, to the parents of and aborted child. Do I deny my love to myself, for insisting that my then wife abort our child? Do I let myself off the hook, by holding fast to the lie that it was ultimately her choice? And how do I mend this sin? 

Ultimately do I deny my love to others, because they have sinned in the same way I have?

Do I deny my love to the self described homosexual, even though I have never witnessed their activity? To the poor? To the homeless? The convicted murderer, whether guilty or not? Do I deny my love to the child molester, because I was molested? I find justification for this in Mathew 18. Do I deny my love to those who insist on stopping abortion, but excersize no political responsibility for caring for the poor?

In the end to I justify my behavior, because of the sins of others, or will I be judged by my love even to those I feel enmity for? Or will I be judged by my love for them, my charity to them?

Is there evil int he world. Most assuredly there is. I publish a website http://www.stmichaelgodsknight.com, the basis of which is explaining my faith, but love triumphs over faith. For in the end in the final analysis, when I am judged by Jesus without a lawyer, will it be righteousness upon which i will be judged, or the extent of the love in my heart. There is evil in the world, Jesus testified to this when he saw Lucifer being cast from the sky. He and his follows roam the earth looking and tempting souls to be devoured. Will I be judged by righteousness, or the love in my heart?

Do I love that person in the oval office, with whom I disagree, and judge on a daily basis? How do I fight for righteousness and justice, with a heart containing only love? How do I follow Christ?

Is my heart sick, full of righteousness, justification, justice and judgement, so that the love is overshadowed.

Did I love even my own family, when I pursued employment and material success, rather than time with them? Did I spend my time disciplining and judging them and not loving them? Do I fool my self my justifying my duty to provide ahead of by love for them, confusing provision with love? Do I delude myself with the false justification that discipline is really a form of love?. 

As I approach cancer surgery, these are the questions I wrestle with, as wrestling with the devil until I tire and give in to love of all, including those who perpetrated me, in who's face I refuse to see Christ.

Will the man in the oval office allow my surgery? Does this uncertainty illicit love in my heart or bitterness and judgement? 

From the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta, I hear that there is not room in my heart for love and judgment. 

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

.  

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http://stmichaelgodsknight.blogspot.com/2015/02/an-abused-childs-prayer.html

http://stmichaelgodsknight.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-daily-prayer-that-never-fails-and.html

Isn't It Time For The Proclamation of The Fifth Marian Dogma

 The Lady of All Nations”

or
The Mother of All Nations”

 Previous Apparitions of Our Lady, The Blessed Mother

•  Lady of Guadeloupe
• In 1531 Our Lady of Guadeloupe appeared to a devout but humble peasant named Juan Diego. she asked for a church to be built on Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City, nad gave juan diego a sign in the form of her image on his rolled up tilma. As he unrolled the tilmain frnt of the bishop, after the bishop had asked Juan for a sign, roses spilled out and the image of our lady of guadalupe was contained or emblazoned on it. The tilma attracts thousands of pilgrims to the basilica in Mexico city where it hangs undecided ever since

•  Our Lady of Fatima  who called herself Our Lady of the Rosary appeared to three peasant children in Portugal 7 times. She told these humble children to pray the rosary and do other things to pray for sinners for many will perish due to sins of the flesh. She also warned of Russia but that Russia could be converted

•  Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to a poor peasant, fourteen-year-old, Bernadette Soubiroux The first apparition occurred February 11, 1858. There were eighteen in all; the last took place July 16, of the same year. 
• On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus. A little more than three years later, on February 11, 1858, a young lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. This began a series of visions. During the apparition on March 25, the lady identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” 

•  On March 25, 1945 Our Lady appeared in Amsterdam to Ida Peerdeman (†1996).This was the first of 56 apparitions, which took place between 1945 and 1959.
•  On May 31, 2002, the local bishop came to the conclusion that the apparitions of Amsterdam are of supernatural origin. Our Lady appears under a new title, “The Lady of All Nations” or “The Mother of All Nations”. In this time she wants to be made known and loved by everyone under this title.In a prophetic way, she gives, above all, an impressive insight about the situation in the Church and in the world.see http://www.de-vrouwe.info/en/

Marian Dogmas of the Catholic Church

 Up to this point in history, the Church has proclaimed four “dogmas” or solemnly pronounced doctrines about the Virgin Mary:
1) that Mary is the Mother of God (Council of Ephesus, 431);
2) that she is a Perpetual Virgin (Lateran Council, 649);
3) that Mary was conceived without original sin, or her “Immaculate Conception” (Bl. Pius IX, 1854); and
4) that she was assumed body and soul into heaven, or her “Assumption” (Pius XII, 1950).

The Fifth Marian Dogma

The last major doctrine about Mary is her role as Spiritual Mother of all peoples under its three motherly aspects as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces, and Advocate, which is already the official teachings of the popes, or the “Papal Magisterium.” What then would be the benefit of a solemn proclamation of a “fifth dogma” of Mary’s spiritual motherhood by the Holy Father?


In the world today and particularly within the United States of America we are living through an unprecedented time of atheism and an attack on God himself. Justice has become secondary to Tolerance. Justice has become the rule of society and of law. We see this in the murder of the unborn even the expansion of abortion beyond the third trimester, which the supreme Court had once made the dividing line between legal and illegal murder of children in the womb. Many babies are now free to be terminated up to the last days of pregnancy and even outside the womb. We are now seeing the harvesting of tiny infant organs for "scientific" purposes.

The attack on Christian truths does not just end with abortion. Make no mistake about it the  Catholic Church is the standard of Christian values being the Church that Jesus personally founded. We see the Holy Spirit ignored in the daily lives of a great many people in this country and around the world. 

Christian values once a very deep part of the American culture are being attacked by revisionist historians who deny the role of God in the lives of our founders and the formation of our nation. Revisionist history seeks to re-write American history in a manner that is not reflective of the true nature of the lives of our founders and the values which they instilled in writing in our deceleration of Independence and our Constitutions. 

This rebellion against God has it's roots in the protestant Re-formation, for the ideal of the separation of church and state was to rid the colonies and the new Unitied States of America from a state sponsored religion, ie, the Church of England ruled by the King of England as a false Pope. The idea of a monarch setting himself up as the head of a nations church is not a new one in hstory  as the emperors of Rome sought to do the same thing during thier time. These monarch  of Rome sought to set themselves as divine  and the punishment for Christians or at that time followers of the way for not acknowledging the Emperor as Father as God was death, often times death by being feed to animals as entertainment for the Masses.

The founding fathers were great students of history as well as God fearing men most were protestans of some sort, but all in their writings and actions acknowledged the existence of Jesus Christ, God the Father and the role of the Holy spirit in the winning of our freedom.

Those revisionists who deny this thinking of out founding and our founding fathers rely on individual tracts or pieces of writing which do not give an entire picture of the mind and thus the souls of our founders -- the mind being an aspect a manifestation of our souls.

So these days we see the onslaught of atheism in competition with Christian values and supported by the revisionist historians as evidence that the separation of church and state meant that God wsa to be kept out of our government institution, when in fact it was an insurance and an assurance theat a state religion as the Church of England would be established here in the Uinited states. This removal of God from our institution can be seen as nothing more than the evil one taking advantage of the passage of time to subvert and corrupt the meaning and the validity of our institutions and Americans as a god believing and fearing people grateful to God for our foundation. It is an attack by the evil one on the very foundation of the United States of America. 

The atheists thought that would subvert our national values are not really atheists at all for human beings  cannot absorb such a concept as atheism. Atheists are worshipers of the human mind. Th trick of the evil one here is to postulate that since God cannot be completely understand or proven by human logic then he cannot exist, and thus many are moved to assert their right to worship their own minds by removing religious and Christian affiliations for our government institutions. 

There are other attacks on Christian values that have seemed to have on of vethe united dstates of America in promoting the value of tolerance over the value of justice. For example the Te government's usurpation of the institution of marriage. Marriage is a product of the Christian religion it's history is in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony honored only be the Catholic church. For the government to claim marriage as an instrument of government and an institution of government and thus a right as defined by the bill of rights in the US Constitution  is not based on hsotrical fact. the insitution of marriage is also a proof of the religous and chritian nature of the untred sates of america. Marriage was never intended as a right, it was not addressedd during the enlightenment period when it was determined by The thoughts guided by God himself that humanity was endowed with rights because they were human beings created by God and thus were are equal in the eyes of God. A careful reading of the Deceleration of Independence signed by pout founding fathers reveals this truth of God centered human beings and a God centered nation.

The difference between an atheist and a God centered human is that the atheists believe there own thoughts are god, wile the God centered human through faith the certain knowledge of the spritual realm knows that thoughts  as faith an intellectual ability are gifts of go9d driven Because an atheist cannot prove God in his/ her own mind the conclusion is that God doesn't exists. The logical fallacy in this should be obvious to the atheist in that the creature is not greater then the Creator therefore, no creature would have the ability to unsdrstand or prove God to the created mind. Unless the created mind were God. Atheists see their minds as their gods and they love and worship their own thoughts. This is trickery of the evil one and a play on, as all sin, the pride of an individual.

As Catholic we readily acknowledge this right relationship between God the Creator and ourselves the created, we do this by doing those things he said to do even those sacraments He instituted as mysteries.  We do them even though we don't understand them.  It may be said here that most likely do to Luther's pride there's a bit of the atheist in all protestants as they refuse to "eat His flesh and drink His blood" but rather see these things as a symbolic gestures rather than literal mysteries from God.

So there is sin in the untited states and in the world, and in the Church. We are not off the hool for the scandal that Jeusus prohesied inMatt 18 Yes, Jesus prophesied the infiltration of the evil one even into the church via the childhood sexual abuse scandal.

Matthew 18New International Version (NIV)

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Causing to Stumble

⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.


These are powerful words of Our Lord, and when I speak as a sexual abuse survivor to my survivor friends, I often quote them for no other spiritual leader in no other Holy book speaks up for us survivors. Jesus does this in-spite of the church and her sins. Jesus warned his bishops of this very scandal and what is more told them what to do about it.

The Church must cleanse the temple ad keep it cleansed from evil men who would go so far as to go to seminary and put on collar so they could gain access to victimes to molest. This is the proper way of looking at the sexual abuse scandal. There is no "treatment" there is no changing  of these evil perpetrators, and besides perpetrators have been focused on far too long by the church. It is the survivors that deserve our ministering, and we deserve a clean temple cleansed of evil men who would go so far as to go to seminary and put on  a collar so they could gain access to child to victim.

Childhood sexual abuse is an evil as profound as abortion and the Church must be able to understand this he damage done to victims without the right therapy, healing is deep profound and leads to a life dominated by undeserved consequences. The Church must take the lead in not only cleansing the temple and keeping it cleansed and safe for survivors bur stand squarely with survivors and survivors alone  and turn perpetrators to the civilian authorities at once.

Sexual abuse survivors join the victims of abortion as the holy innocents of our time and it is time th church saw things as they are. Aborted children are murdered in the womb, sexual abuse survivors are buried alive.

The family is nor sacred -- the Church is. The family  and family activists should be monitored and sexual abuse indeed abuse of any sot toward a child must be revealed and the perpetrators turned over to civilian authorities when they are clergy, parents grandparents uncles coaches etc, the list goes on and oin. In the Synod on the family the second such synod this non sanctity of the family and the supreme sanctity of the Church should be proclaimed.

So therefore, there is a real need for the proclamation of a fifth Marian dogma. 

Then we have the slaughter throughout the world of Christians my Islam. The failure of Russia to respect us.

We also have a government who is willing to let Christians be slaughtered around the world rather than protect our religious freedom, which is what the founders had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.

There is a need to  pray the rosary and urge the pope to proclaim the fith Marian Dogma.


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Are we trading Justice for Tolerance?

I was recently asked the following question

When Jesus rescued the woman taken in adultery (John 8), did he tell us not to judge whether adultery is wrong?

As for me I have enough trouble with the plank in my own eye. Jesus said, is there no on left to condemn you? nor do I condemn you, go and sin no more. In these few words, there is a great deal to mediate on. First, only God can condemn (period). This is why as Catholics holders an guardians and evangelizers of the truth, while we canonize those we know to be in heaven, we do not say that anyone is in hell -- for we don't know. God's ways are not our ways.

Our initial judgment is based on the state of our soul when we die, how far God's mercy extends at this point is not for us to say, except we are to avoid both sin and judgment. God saved St. Dismas from the cross. While it is true that the grace sufficient for a death bed conversion is extremely rare, there are occasions, as with St. Dismas. According to his grandson who is a priest in Los Angeles, John Wayne the actor received this grace.

We are to be kind and loving even to our enemies. This means we avoid gossip even discussing the sin of another with other people is a sin on us.

As Mother Teresa said, "If I judge people, I have no time to love them"?
As human beings we are not qualified to judge others. We do not know their hearts, we judge by what we think we know -- behvior. We are to love and be kind even to those who exhibit sinful behavior.

So I am not completely certain what your point is. You seem to be looking for a loophole where we can be free to condemn those we believe to be sinners. This is not Catholic doctrine, otherwise we would have a process similar to canonization, but in the reverse whereby we say so and so we know to be in hell. This determination is reserved to God alone. It is not our role. We ask God to forgive our sins as we forgive the sins of others. Our attitude as stated by Christ in matt 25:31-46 should be one of loving kindness to all.
Jesus forgave the adultery of this woman in the same way we are forgiven in confession and told her as we are told to sin no more. Yet if you are anything like me, we return again and again to confession. Sometimes struggling to overcome the same sin.

As Catholics with the fullness of the truth and the responsibility to evangelize we know that adultery is wrong, and we do not engage in it. We advise others to avoid it. If we know that someone has committed adultery do we tell them what we know? Well yes. Our approach must be one of loving kindness though and not from a place of judgment and condemnation. If they are receptive, then great we can offer our help. If their hearts are hardened, we certainly do not agree with them that what they have done is ok, but nor do we continually point out their flaws or their missing the mark, which is the definition of sin. These people we pray for, even after death.

I know personally of a woman who admittedly had affairs and multiple abortions. I could not change her, as she got involved with an organization called Christ unity, which I believe to be satanic. She ended up having cancer and opted to go to Oregon for an assisted suicide. I continue to pray for her soul, and ask for God's mercy. I cannot judge her one way or the other, but only provide hopeful prayer.

In a sense your question is silly. Of course adultery is wrong and every Catholic knows that, but so is judging others. As far as condemning the sin and not the sinner, I have to laugh when I hear this fundie slogan. For without the grace that comes from regularly taking the sacraments; it is impossible to love the sinner, while condemning the sin.
I personally have been counseled by fundie pastors and know this to be true. Without the grace of the sacraments they simply cannot separate the sinner from the sin, and thus, end up doing more harm then good, by condemning the sinner.

Now does any of what I have said mean we are to support the government sanction of divorce or homosexuality. No. of course not. Both our wrong. We are to treat people in each group with loving kindness. We as sinners are in no position to stone anyone. Hence, the Catholic doctrine on life, which includes doctrine against capital punishment. We are fallible, as are our institutions. Recent DNA evidence has indicated a systemic practice in the US of executing the innocent. Fully 1/3 of those executed in this country are later proved to be innocent of their conviction by DNA evidence. This makes the state guilty of murder.

The government sanction of homosexuality by making it legal for homosexuals to marry those of the same sex is clearly wrong, and as Catholics we cannot support it. It is based on dubious evidence which includes a perceived genetic predisposition and the fact that the APA since 1974 has said that homosexuality is only a disorder, if the practitioner of the homosexual activity is disturbed by his or her activity. This point of view is imprecise scientifically, and has provided the homosexual community with license, and denied them help for their disorder. The government has based on this action by the APA and in response to hate toward homosexuals. Responded by extending rights to practicing homosexuals. This sanction by both the APA and the government has stiflied further research and given license to disordered behavior while denying those with the disorder the help that they need. The government and the APA are trading tolerance for justice. We cannot have one without the other. When I use the word justice, I use it in it’s platonic sense of an appropriately reasoned response to the facts. The APA should not have changed it’s definition of homosexuality as a disorder simply because there is not enough information. A genetic predisposition does not support the view that homosexuality is natural. And if a homosexual is not disturbed by the behavior Psychologists should be asking the question why are they not disturbed? The answer to that question probably lies in the genetic predisposition. But this should give psychologists a new approach to treatment not a reason to sanction the behavior. The wrong thinking and poor science involved in the APA decisions, the homosexual movement, government sanctioning of homosexual behavior, and the feelings of repugnance that many have when we contemplate homosexual behavior does not give us license to stone homosexuals. Unfortunately many who call themselves followers of Christ have resorted to hateful and violent behavior as a consequence of their feelings. Many have treated practicing homosexuals in a manner that Jesus taught us was wrong when he put a stop to the stoning of the adulteress woman.

We also know that abortion is murder. Life as born out by the scientific evidence we now have begins at conception, but does this give us license to stone abortionists or those who have had an abortion? No. We are to treat them with loving kindness, while working to convince those who would consider abortion not to go through with it, and at the same time working to overturn the unjust court decision and laws that permit abortion. The law is unjust in that the unborn are conceived with civil rights. The first of which being the right to life. This is the most salient issue of our time. And one that puts the Church clearly at the head of a progressive and just civil rights movement.

It is in this areas of judgment and condemnation of both abortionists and those who have had abortions that the pro-life movement has gotten off base and become fanatical. This is not doctrinal nor is it Christ like. We do have a right and a duty to speak out and act in accordance with doctrine, but that doctrine includes loving all including our enemies. This is a hard teaching of our Lord, but he clearly commanded us to love even our enemies. We must also remember that the measure we use to judge others will be the measure that is used to judge us. Therefore how can I live a life where I am free to judge other sinners. I cannot. The fanaticism of the pro-life movement has in fact caused many to harden their hearts. This is not good evangelism. Justice – an appropriately reasoned response based on the facts is good evangelism. The Church has learned of many errors and it’s members have throughout history made mistakes. These mistakes have sometimes gotten to the point of scandal. But let the tares grow among the wheat for they will be eliminated at harvest time, if not by before by our bishops and the magistirium before the harvest. Loving kindness is the way of the Lord, and he exemplified this in the story of the adulteress found to be in the very act of adultery.

A deeper learning and understanding of Catholic doctrine brings us the dual realization of doctrinal perfection and our own inadequacies as individual members.
So, yes if you are perfect in your judgment then cast the first stone.
As for me and my house we will follow the Lord.

http://www.stmichaelgodsknight.com

copyright 2010 Fred Celio

Why The Church Leads the Way in Civil Rights

Today's alternate Gospel reading is about the visitation. I love it when people say we do not know the bible. because we wrote it, and we live it through the liturgical year. This week is the 20th week in ordinary time. Today we also celebrate the visitation. This occurred when Blessed Mother visited her cousin St. Elizabeth. Both of whom are with child. Blessed Mother with Jesus and St. Elizabeth with His cousin St. John the Baptist. St. John the baptist leaped in St. Elizabeth's womb at their meeting.

Today also we have a debate about health care. Should something called comprehensive reproductive care, as characterized by Cecile Richards, be included in a national health care package. According to Ms. Richards, comprehensive reproductive care includes the legal right to abortion. Of course to the rest of us comprehensive reproductive care means something else -- prenatal care. Who could be opposed to having prenatal care included in a national health care package.

As with any debate language is important. No African American man today would put up with being called "boy" or worse. Just as no woman would want to be seen as "unviable" without a husband to provide for her. So in the future the unborn will gain their civil rights and no longer be referred to as sub-human, "unviable", fetus, embryo. The extention of civil rightss to the unborn will occur, and rightly so, for two reasons. First, science has proved that a unique human being is formed at conception. The second reason has to do with the foundation of this country. This country was founded on the fact that all humans are endowed by their creator with rights, and that it is the proper role, the duty of governments to protect the rights of human beings.

So reproductive care is prenatal health care, and abortion is not.

Abortion requires that we see a class of unique human beings as less than human, otherwise we would not be able to deny them their civil rights. These rights which include the right to life, as codified in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution, apply to all human beings equally. Our country was founded on this principle. the principle that rights are inherent and retained by the human being and that it is the proper function of governments to protect the rights that are unalienable from the human. These rights belong to human beings. This is the forward progressive thinking of humanity and has been since the enlightenment and the birth of the nation to first recognize and put into practice this principle -- the United States of America.

And so there are two sides in this debate on universal health coverage. There is the reactionary oppressive side, who would characterize and have the rest of us see human beings as something less than human, and thus not protect the rights that they inherently have. And give one class of people a privilege to destroy these sub-human people through their medically assisted discharge. The idea that governments can assign such privileges to a class of people is of course the old thinking which dates back to the time of the Divine right of kings to assign privilege to whomever they might choose, arbitrarily. This previledge, extened arbitrarily and with no basis in law, denies the rights that reside with another class of humans the oppressed unborn child.

Have we learned nothing about civil rights from the principles in our Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights? Have we learned nothing from Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. about nonviolently objecting to laws that are not laws because they do not live up to our founding principle, our country's very foundation?

And so we can see Ms. Richards and groups like Planned Parenthood for what they really are -- the nobles who oppressed the serfs, the slave traders who oppressed African Americans, and the male chauvinists who oppressed women. These new oppressors the abortionists, expect the privilege of being able to destroy human beings, human beings who according to this backward oppressive thinking are now seen as chattel.

The cause of unplanned pregnancy is unplanned pregnancy, the cause of the slave trade was the slave trade. Neither of these support the position that it is right for a class of people to oppress another class of people by denying them the rights that they were endowed with by their creator.

And who are the progressives in this debate? Who are the forward thinkers? Who are those who are standing up for the inherent rights of an oppressed class? As the abolitionists, as those who fought for equal rights for women? They are in fact, USCCB The United States Council of Catholic Bishops. Our Shepards. The successors of the Apostles. These are the ones standing up for the greatest civil rights movement of the 21st century. Standing up for the rights of human beings conceived and formed unique human beings. These men are the forward thinkers the defenders of civil rights in this new movement that will continue until all men are truly created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are LIFE ... The USCCB these are the new patriots the true defenders of the American ideals upon which this country was founded.

As lay people it is our duty to follow them as sheep follow Shepards and to leap for joy as St. John the baptist leaped in the womb of St. Elizabeth.

We Catholics are the new abolitionists. Unfortunately there is no underground railroad to free these unborn human beings. But there is prayer, fasting and debate. Debate where the sides are properly understood. The oppressors are the privileged class and those who support them encouraged and even sanctioned by the government, as slavery once was, to destroy human beings because they are seen as unviable, just as in previous generations other human beings were seen as sub-human or weak and thus unviable.

Civil rights for the unborn.

What does this have to do with the visitation? One human being leaping for joy in the womb as he was visited by another fully human and fully God, yet in the womb.

copyright 2009 by Fred Celio