Thursday, November 4, 2010

The beautiful blue waters of the Med / Le belle acque azzurre del Mare Mediterraneo

The wake of the ferry boat travelling from Messina to Villa San Giovanni reveals the many hues of blue of the Mediterranean Sea.

Photo by blogger, 26 Oct 2010:

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Requiescant in Pace: Priests, Martyrs, and Companions, Martyrs, of Baghdad / I Martiri di Baghdad


Hadi Mizban/Associated Press

A victim’s coffin was carried past the church. An affiliate of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia claimed responsibility for the attack.

Father Wasim Sabieh and Father Thaier Saad Abdal were killed during the attack. The third priest, Father Qatin, was wounded and died later in hospital. Read more about the story at Aid to the Church in Need.


Pro-life Victories Sweep the Nation

November 3, 2010
Today we are encouraged by the huge pro-life victories all over the nation in yesterday's election. Now comes the hard task of living up to the rhetoric.


Pundits hashing over election results last evening gave an acknowledgment that Pres. Obama's health care fiasco was the catalyst for this largest Republican revolution since WWII. The heart of that debate was public opposition to tax-funding of abortion, and the insistence of Democrats to include it by hook or by crook.


The newly elected majorities in Washington and in State Houses across this nation must give the pro-life cause more than lip service. We have given our votes based on their pledges to protect life. Now it's time for their "hips to align with their lips."


We are especially encouraged by victories in two states, Kansas and Iowa, where the lives of innocent children literally hung in the balance of this election.


In Kansas, pro-abortion appointee Attorney General Steve Six was dismissed by the voters and replaced with pro-life supporter Derek Schmidt. That puts an end to the legal monkey business that has so far delayed the prosecution of Planned Parenthood on 107 criminal charges. With the election of Sam Brownback as governor and a solidly pro-life legislature, a tightening in Kansas abortion laws are predicted.


In Iowa, while Planned Parenthood crony Tom Miller retained his office as Attorney General, the legislature flipped to Republican and Iowans elected pro-life Terry Branstad as governor, who has publicly denounced telemed abortions. Now pro-lifers have the tools they need to pass laws that will ban Planned Parenthood's dangerous webcam abortion pill distribution scheme before it can spread nationwide.


But again, come January, it will be time to turn campaign rhetoric into practical action to put our nation back on the right track and advance protections for the pre-born until every child conceived is guaranteed his or her right to life under the law.


What do you think? Please visit our web site and take our latest poll. Do you think the changes made in this election will result in any significant advancement in the cause to abolish abortion?


For the voiceless,

Troy Newman


P.S. Operation Rescue has worked tirelessly to expose abortion abuses and oppose governmental corruption that has protected the abortion cartel from accountability under the law. Please ensure we have the resources we need to continue this important work by clicking here to make a donation to Operation Rescue online. Thank you in advance for your support!

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About Operation Rescue®

Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation and has become a strong voice for the pro-life movement in America. Operation Rescue is now headquartered in a former abortion clinic that it bought and closed in 2006. From there, Operation Rescue launches its innovative new strategies across the nation, exposing and closing abortion clinics through peaceful, legal means. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to stop abortion and ultimately restore legal personhood to the pre-born in obedience to biblical mandates. Click here to support Operation Rescue. Click here to make a secure donation online.
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The Straits of Messina / I Stretti di Messina

The ferry service between Sicily and the Italian peninsula departs from Messina to Villa San Giovanni, among other destinations.

Pictured here is the colossal statue of Christ the King imparting blessing to the city and all who enter or depart the harbor of Messina.

Photo by blogger, 26 October 2010.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Benedict All Souls Day: "Dona eis requiem."


Dies iræ ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla:
Teste David cum Sibylla !

02 Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando iudex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus !

03 Tuba, mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulchra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum.

04 Mors stupebit, et natura,
Cum resurget creatura,
Iudicanti responsura.

05 Liber scriptus proferetur,
In quo totum continetur,
Unde mundus iudicetur.

06 Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
Quidquid latet, apparebit:
Nil inultum remanebit.

07 Quid sum miser tunc dicturus ?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
Cum vix iustus sit securus ?

08 Rex tremendæ maiestatis,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis.

09 Recordare, Iesu pie,
Quod sum causa tuæ viæ:
Ne me perdas illa die.

10 Quærens me, sedisti lassus:
Redemisti Crucem passus:
Tantus labor non sit cassus.

11 Iuste iudex ultionis,
Donum fac remissionis
Ante diem rationis.

12 Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
Culpa rubet vultus meus:
Supplicanti parce, Deus.

13 Qui Mariam absolvisti,
Et latronem exaudisti,
Mihi quoque spem dedisti.

14 Preces meæ non sunt dignæ:
Sed tu bonus fac benigne,
Ne perenni cremer igne.

15 Inter oves locum præsta,
Et ab hædis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra.

16 Confutatis maledictis,
Flammis acribus addictis:
Voca me cum benedictis.

17 Oro supplex et acclinis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis:
Gere curam mei finis.

18 Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
iudicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:

19 Pie Iesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.

English translation for the Dies Irae can be found by clicking here.




Photos: Father Kevin Cusick celebrates Mass for All Souls Day in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite at Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Benedict, Maryland on 2 November 2010 with Mr. George Walter assisting.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Benedict: Omnium Sanctorum / Sollenità di Tutti i Santi / Solemnity of All Saints

Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for the Solemnity of All Saints Day at the parish of Saint Frances de Sales Catholic Church in Benedict, Maryland.

Mr. George Walter assists celebrant Father Kevin M. Cusick. The antique gold vestments with floral decoration are recently obtained from Italy.

"Everything has been handed over to me by my Father": Does Christ tell Christians how to vote?

Well, yes and no.

At the same time that He teaches us what is right and wrong, inviting us, for example, to vote for good and urging us to shun and reject evil in the voting booth, the Lord never takes away our freedom to reject His teachings. But that does not mean that we have the option of calling our rejection of His teaching acceptable to Him or equally as Christian as accepting His teaching as handed on by the Church.

It seems to be ever more common today to assume that the Church has nothing to say about social and political issues and that, when she does, she is somehow taking away freedom or violating a mythical “wall of separation between Church and state” which does not now nor did it ever exist. The Church exercises the sovereign freedom of Christ the Lord to teach the world, in season and out of season, about all matters of faith and morals. This is a duty and a grace demanded by Christ and the Church does not have the option to neglect or reject it under pressure. This is the reason why there have been so many martyrs throughout the Christian millennia.

Christ makes demands upon people as to how to live their lives. This is why we have Ten Commandments, and not ten suggestions. This is fundamental to Christianity and the Church does not have the power to change it. No one does.

Being Christian, for example, means refusing to apply the phrase "Holy Matrimony" to anything other than a lifelong, exclusive covenant relationship open to new human life between one man-husband and one woman-wife. Doing so is not at the same time a rejection of or a violation of the rights of anyone who chooses to reject that teaching either in his or her words or actions. To say so is an unjust slander. But rejection of the teaching does have consequences for someone who wants to be a Christian. That is why repentance and reparation are part of the dialectic of Christian conversion. To love Christ I must put off the "old man" and put on the "new". I must change my life to reflect and further God's love which is a grace and thus comes from God and not from me.

There are certain actions which are always sinful and the Church passes on the teaching of Christ in this regard in order to serve the dignity of every human person. It is not God or the Church or her teaching on faith and morals which undermines and destroys human dignity but sin. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we can have no other.

Vote on Tuesday.

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