The Prophetic Pope, Part II

As I was writing the last article on this blog, I needed a link to Humanae Vitae. As I'm an old hacker preferring command lines to this new-fangled GUI stuff, I of course went to Goosh, the command-line interpreter for Google to get it. Oddly enough, Goosh came up with only four links, and the fourth one, This Article from First Things Blog way back in 2008- explaining that scientific, secular fact had caught up with Pope Paul VI's predictions- and that even back then, before Obama, every single one of them had come true in the 40 years since the Church took this not-so-radical stance.

For Lent

I have given up posting on the subjects of Birth Control and Abortion on the Oregonian's blog. From the response to this article on Catholic women who use birth control should speak out, my opinion won't be missed in the least.

There are plenty of others to take up this cross. Having said that, my lenten fast is only from the Oregonian's blog, not from my personal blog. And so I post here to Maura Casey- Amen Sister.

Not that I agree with you in the least on your dissent from Church Teaching. But unless dissenters come out of the closet and are loud and vocal in their dissent, there is no opportunity to explain church teaching to them. And if their dissent is accurate and actually has some evidence- well, that's how doctrine develops. Let's *actually have the discussion* that Blessed Pope John Paul The Great wanted Evangelium Vitae to begin- on the dignity and "special genius" of women, and how, in Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, contraception encourages the objectification of women and thus the destruction of that dignity and "special genius".

You can't dissent superficially without knowing what you're dissenting against. You can't believe on faith alone without reason. Far too many American Catholics today are doing both.

Predictions from the past, the psychic Pope

Not often I repeat the extreme right wing views of Michael Voris. In many ways I see him as much as a dissenter as those he decries as heretics on the left.

But today's Vortex did have some interesting points. It helps that he referenced a Pope- all of his best stuff does- Pope Paul VI in his groundbreaking Humanae Vitae, the encyclical the first world loves to ignore, or hate.

In it Pope Paul VI made some interesting predictions of what would happen to any society that accepted and made contraception legal for the purposes of birth control:

An overall lowering of moral standards

A rise in infidelity and illegitimacy

The reduction of women to objects for men's pleasure

Government coercion in reproductive matters

Remember, this was written in 1968. In the United States, we have now seen all four of these predictions come to pass. Moral standards are at an all time low, and have been since the 1969 "Summer of Love" which should really have been named "The Summer of using the opposite sex for lust".

Porn is rampant all over the internet and even on network television, so yes, we have the objectification of women.

Infidelity is rampant, resulting in divorce- and loads of kids raised in single parent homes (my wife runs a daycare, the MAJORITY of her clients are single parents).

And finally, with Title X under Nixon and the Obama Mandate, we now have government coercion to lower birth rates.

Who knew that Pope Paul VI was psychic?

Scary link

For those claiming the Great Recession is over, we offer This incredibly scary link. Oh well, I guess my house will be back to worth what it was about the time my child goes to college.

Did you hear about the anecdotal evidence for The Pill?

Despite this being a third hand story with NO way to trace if it's true or not, supposedly a friend of Sarah Fluke had PCOS- Ovarian Cysts- and needed *birth control* pills to save her fertility.

Never mind that in previous generations when we put human life as a higher value than material goods, most 32 year old women would have been done having children anyway. But that's a bit beside my point.

My point is that I decided to look up treatments for PCOS. I was unable to find one that contained birth control pills, but this group suggests PCOS may be a symptom of untreated Type 1 Diabetes and might be better treated with diet and exercise.

Ayn Rand wasn't just an athiest

She was also an Illegal Immigrant. Reason Magazine shows how Ayn, fearing certain death for her views in Soviet Russia under Lenin, overstayed a tourist visa while staying with relatives in Chicago, and even had a "marriage of convience" with her actor husband, just as her extension on her visa was about to run out (to her credit, she stuck with him for 50 years until his death in 1979). She was also pro-choice, which makes her a very suspect philosopher for any Republican trying to be conservative.

The Secret Teaching of the Catholic Church

Or not so secret. Evangelium Vitae has been on the Internet for 20 years- one of the first group of Vatican Encyclicals put out on the then-new world wide web. But it seems most American Catholics have never read it, making the Bishops current battle against the Obama Administration over mandated family planning seem out of touch.

For those wondering why all the hoopla about Family Planning now, I quote EV Section 13:

13. In order to facilitate the spread of abortion, enormous sums of money have been invested and continue to be invested in the production of pharmaceutical products which make it possible to kill the fetus in the mother's womb without recourse to medical assistance. On this point, scientific research itself seems to be almost exclusively preoccupied with developing products which are ever more simple and effective in suppressing life and which at the same time are capable of removing abortion from any kind of control or social responsibility.

It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality"-which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act-are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro- abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected. Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion arespecifically different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment "You shall not kill".

But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion are practised under the pressure of real- life difficulties, which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God's law fully. Still, in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfilment. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception.

The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious. It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development of chemical products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which, distributed with the same ease as contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in the very early stages of the development of the life of the new human being.

The dear departed Blessed Pope John Paul The Great *does* have a point here. According to the February 2005 issue of Consumer Reports, in typical usage condoms fail 15% of the time. Birth control pills fail 8% of the time. This is contrasted with "perfect" usage in which the error rates fall to 2% and 1% respectively. But when you consider that most birth control failures result in an abortion- would we accept a car that 8 out of 100 trips crashes and kills the children of it's operator? I would also point out that there are several drugs out there that we now know cause MALE contraception, but because these drugs also cause "erectile dysfunction" (what better form of birth control is there than NOT being able to complete standard sexual intercourse?) they are not marketed as such, and Planned Parenthood will never give a prescription for Cymbalta because they don't believe a lower libido can be effective birth control- either that or because it's so effective they wouldn't get any more abortion business.

Time for a new round of You Might Be a Terrorist

Been a couple of months. I wonder how the federal government is coming on those concentration, uh, FEMA camps.....Still time for another round of required federal reports in several industries that might suggest that you too are a terrorist:

1. Airport Service Providers -- Includes on-craft providers: baggage, cleaners, cargo, catering, mechanics, ground crew, food service, cleaners, security, taxi, limos, and shuttles.

2. Beauty/Drug Suppliers -- People who have burn marks, missing limbs, travel a long distance, nervous, who are picked up, make illogical requests (even of consumer-grade products).

3. Bulk Fuel Distributors -- New customers not from the area, those using cash for large transactions, nervous, large purchases, having a rental vehicle.

4. Construction Sites -- People with environmental slogans and/or anti-government slogans, banners or signs that threaten or imply violence.

5. Dive/Boat Shops -- New customers reluctant to provide complete personal information, customer who does not have certification, using cash for expensive transactions, extended rentals, appearing uninterested in safety rules, experiencing guarded behavior.

6. Electronics Stores -- Person who alters appearance from visit to visit (changing hair color, shaving, etc.), fills a "shopping list" of components while lacking knowledge about their use. Pays cash for large purchases.

7. Farm Supply Stores -- New customers not from the area, nervous or impatient, suspicious inquiries regarding equipment specifications, failing to state legitimate use for supplies, rental vehicle, cash for large transactions.

8. Financial Institutions -- No evidence for legitimate business activity, those with multiple accounts, banks, parties, and jurisdictions (layering). Mixed deposits (money orders, third-party checks, and/or payroll into a business account). Large volume of wire transfers, or repetitive patterns, shell entities, "pass through" points by foreign jurisdictions.

9. General Aviation -- Taking flying lessons but appear uninterested, renting under vague reasons for doing so, requests to fly over specific locations without substantiated reason, taking pictures or videos of potentially sensitive locations, actions outside the norm, parking near the perimeter of airport, asking questions without substantiation.

10. General Public -- Basically everything exhibited by those with an inquisitive nature: questions, note taking, drawing, annotating maps, inappropriate photos or videos, people in places where they do not belong.

11. Hobby Shops -- Interest in remote-controlled aircraft, interest that does not seem genuine, possessing little knowledge of purchase, exhibiting unusual interest, exhibiting no interest, using cash for large transactions.

12. Home Improvement and Large Retail Stores -- Large quantity of ammunition, firearms and ammunition out of season, combination of unusual items, interest in night vision and camouflage apparel, purchases of pipe fittings and supplies, rental vehicle, refusal to complete firearms paperwork, using cash for large transactions.

13. Hotels/Motels -- "Request specific room assignments or locations.","Use cash for large transactions or a credit card in someone else’s name.","Arrive with unusual amounts of luggage.","Make unusual inquiries about local sites, including government, military, police, communications, and power facilities.","Refuse cleaning service over an extended time.","Use entrances and exits that avoid the lobby.","Abandon a room and leave behind clothing and toiletry items.","Do not leave their room.","Change their appearance."

14. Internet Cafes -- Travel far to get to one, "Are overly concerned about privacy, attempts to shield the screen from view of others", "Always pay cash or use credit card(s) in different name(s)", "Act nervous or suspicious behavior inconsistent with activities", "Are observed switching SIM cards in cell phone or use of multiple cell phones"

15. Shopping Malls -- Wearing backpacks, discreet use of cameras, note-taking, or video over an extended period, several men arriving together then splitting up, continuing to communicate (dry run?), speaking to security guards, comments regarding radical theology, vague or cryptic warnings, or anti-U.S. sentiments that appear out of place and provocative.

16. Martial Arts/Paintball -- Insist on paying with cash, travels long distance to participate, interest in learning offensive moves in a confined space, learning the use of hidden weapons, learning kill and restraint techniques with no occupational need, group training, uttering racist, religious, unusual, anti-US, or vague and cryptic warnings, close combat training, paintball tactics of ambush or kidnapping scenarios, operating a private facility, converting large plots of rural land to conduct these activities.

17. Mass Transportation -- Altering one's appearance, exhibiting burns, bleached body hair, concealed wires, nervous, actions suggesting use of a hidden camera, unusual comments, questioning security/facility personnel via normal means of communication, groups arriving together then splitting up and communicating via cell phone.

18. Military Surplus -- Demanding identity privacy, insisting on paying with cash, suspicious comments, bulk purchases.

19. Peroxide Explosives -- Unknown customer, individual requesting more information.

20. Recognizing Sleepers -- Arrival from countries where violent militant Islamic groups are known to operate, long unexplained absences, fury at the West for reasons ranging from personal problems to global policies of the U.S., conspiracy theories about Westerners (e.g. the CIA arranged for 9/11 to legitimize the invasion of foreign lands), accusing the West of trying to destroy Islam.

21. Rental Cars -- Reluctance to provide complete personal information, using cash, unusual questions.

22. Rental Properties -- Using cash for large transactions, inquiries about local sites, refusing maintenance or service over extended time, not using property for intended purpose, unusual number of package deliveries, unusual amounts of traffic, discovery of unusual items.

23. Rental Trucks -- Reluctance to provide personal information, cash for large transactions, inquiries about renting a truck with a wooden floor, questions about vehicle specifications.

24. Storage Facilities -- Failing to provide complete personal information, using cash to pay fees in advance, placing unusual items in storage, disposing of tools, gloves, masks, or clothing, discarding clothes or shoes in new condition, avoiding contact with rental facility personnel, accessing facility an unusual number of times, storing items that emit unusual odors or leak liquids.

25. Tattoo Shops -- Demanding identity "privacy," paying cash, altering appearance (beard, hair style, hair color, style of dress, etc.), making racist or extreme statements, suspicious comments that suggest or appear to endorse violence in support of a cause, repeated returns with multiple individuals requesting identical tattoos, inquiries about unusual methods of tattooing or placement which could allow the concealment of extremist symbols.

So remember folks, under the new National Defense of America Act, you too can win an all expense paid trip to an undisclosed FEMA camp for these activities.

What is wrong with Marriage in America today

I was just watching this weekend's rerun of Fulton Sheen's Life is Worth Living on EWTN- and he said something that struck me a being inspired- the dear Archbishop of New York often was, which is what got him a TV show that ran for 40 years. He said that technology in America is beginning, in the 1960s, to affect our love lives. Love, you see, isn't mechanical, it's emotional. Sex is mechanical. And when you separate sex from procreation- you separate sex from love.
Sex is replaceable. But Love is not replaceable. Love is mutual needing- Love is mutual listening. Sex can be a part of it sure- but Love is much more than just sex. It's romance. Too many people take love for granted- love takes work, it is fragile, it needs constant care. To a woman love is a drama, to a man it's an intermission- but to survive it must become a drama. It requires commitment and work.
And that's why I say that marriage must be based not on love, but on commitment. Love is the shifting sand. Commitment is the bedrock. You can't build a house on the shifting sand- but you can build it on the bedrock of commitment.